


Wraiths Of The Past

by MJayde66



Series: Swtor Fanfic: OTP: What Price Duty? [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Angst, Angst for days, Fluff, Plot, Plot runs parallel to Vanilla Game Story, Pre-KOTET, Pre-KOTFE, Pre-SOR, Previous Relationship Angst, Slow Burn, Smut, Spoilers, family stuff, swtor spoilers, there IS a plot, trooper story spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-02-03 18:57:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 40,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12754224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MJayde66/pseuds/MJayde66
Summary: Life for Zandromeda Kenobi started off with the poor hand that Fate dealt her. Born to criminal parents, Zandi has had to deal with abandonment, betrayal and the death of her own mother. But luck came her way when a former Jedi Consular found the young girl with strange cybernetics on the streets of Nar Shaddaa. Adopted, Zandi was given a chance and became part of the Republic Military. A brief stint in SIS helped to shape many of her tricks she now employs in the field. Life is taking an interesting albeit deadly turn as in-game events unfold as well as shadows from a past she thought she put behind her, comes to light and threatens those she holds most dear. Can Zandi truly reconcile her duty as the Commander of Havoc Squad along with her personal duty when demons come calling? Or Will betrayal prove too much and kill her seeming indomitable spirit?





	1. Excerpt 1: Not Cut Out For This

**Author's Note:**

> This is set about 6 years before the start of the game, roughly. Zandi and Theron are both roughly seventeen here. Hope you guys like it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an incredibly difficult mission, a young Zandi resigns from the Republics Strategic Information Service. This has more than simple consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which seventeen year olds are kinda immature.

At the sound of foot steps entering his office, Marcus Trant didn’t look up. He continued scouring the report on the latest SIS operation. While he was aware of how his agents had ended up improvising to save the operation that nearly fell apart before he sent his best agents in, he was looking for specifics concerning a certain young woman, his hand picked Agent-In-Training.  
  
“I apologize for the intrusion, Director,” said a feminine voice in a professional tone. He was bringing his head up when he heard something drop heavily onto his desk. His eyes landed on an SIS issued Blaster, the ammo pack and the very ID of his Agent-In-Training. He frowned and looked up at the young woman standing before him.  
  
“Thank you for the opportunity, Director,” She said, standing at attention with her green eyes holding a thousand yard stare right over his head. “But I’m not equipped for this.”  
  
“I see…” Marcus said, his placed his datapad down on the desk as he leaned back in his chair. “What makes you say that?”  
  
“It’s in my report and my resignation message,” she said, her voice the monotone professionalism he would expect of a Republic Army Trooper. She had gone through the basic training and had exemplary scores across the board. She showed every quality of a leader and would make all of the Republic proud…but she’d been brought to his attention by Colonel Jace Malcolm himself.  
  
Jace had seen something in this woman and after Marcus saw her in action in a live-fire exercise, he’d seen the potential. She’d proven resourceful and managed to extract several ‘targets’ before the end.  
  
“I want to hear it from you, Zandromeda,” Marcus said expectantly.  
  
She hesitated for a moment, the skin around her eyes tightened before she spoke.  
  
“To put it simply, Director,” She started. “I’m not cut out for this.”  
  
He’d suspected as much. When she first started training as an SIS agent, it was apparent to him that there was something holding her back.  
  
“Cut out for what, exactly?” He asked. He’d read the report, he knew what happened but he wanted her reasons.  
  
“Permission to speak freely?” She asked.  
  
“Granted.”  
  
“They had children in that compound,” she stated, her green eyes finally meeting his. “Innocent children that they were using as cheap labor…horrific conditions…We could have saved them all.”  
  
“Believe it or not, Zandi, you did save them all,” Marcus said. “It compromised the operation but Agents Shan and Balkar had already secured the objective.”  
  
“No,” She shook her head. “A group of those bastards got off the planet with a handful of those kids. I don’t pretend to understand every order but I have tried to follow them to the letter…but this…this was too much. This entire operation…” A haunted look passed across her face. “I disobeyed Agent Shan’s orders and I compromised the operation because I felt those innocent children were more important than intelligence.” Her eyes blazed with conviction. She believed it and she wasn’t about to back down from her decision.  
  
“I know,” Marcus said. What he didn’t voice was that she was exactly the kind of person that made up his best agents. “And I understand your reasoning even if it did compromise the operation.”  
  
“Yes,” She said, her already stiff stance went ever more rigid as her eyes resumed their thousand-yard stare. “I’m not cut out for this, sir. I’m done.”  
  
Marcus knew when a decision was final. He understood her position but…he was sad to see her leave. She’d been a invaluable asset to the SIS even as a trainee agent.  
  
“If that is what you truly want,” Marcus said, leaving the sentence open as if it was a question.  
  
“It is, Director,” She affirmed with a final nod.  
  
She was turning to leave his office when he spoke up again while he tapped his datapad to bring up the necessary transfer paperwork for her.  
  
“You might like to know that even though you disobeyed his orders, Agent Shan said in his report that you preformed admirably, going above the call of duty. If it hadn’t been for you, they would never have got all of those kids out safe and sound."  
  
“I see,” She said, a frown creasing her brow as she glanced back at him over her shoulder. “I’m sure they would have been just fine without me. But it doesn’t change my decision.”  
  
Marcus gave her an understanding smile, “I didn’t think it would. Good luck, Zandromeda. The Republic needs more people like you.”  
  
“I appreciate the thought, sir, take care,” She said before leaving his office for the final time.  
  


Zandromeda Kenobi walked silently through the upper levels of one of Coruscant’s infinite number of skyscrapers. This particular building was home to many different things but it was unofficially referred to as SIS Headquarters. She had every hope she would make it to her locker, clear it out and be out of the building before bumping into Jonas or Theron. Especially Theron. That was going to be a very awkward and tense encounter. Not to mention emotional, at least for her.They weren’t exclusive or anything…but she had the heavy feeling, the gut instinct that her leaving SIS meant ending…whatever it was between them. She really really didn’t want to have that conversation here.  
  
_Don’t kid yourself, it was nothing more than a fling for either of you,_ she inwardly chastised herself as she entered the main trainee locker-room. It was true…there wasn’t…anything really. Just a strange hollow ache in her chest. She stood in front of her locker and sighed. Leaving was harder then she’d thought it would be. It wasn’t that she found the SIS to be home but…she’d met people here, people she felt she could one day count on.  
  
_But this last mission…_ She wasn’t cut out for all this cloak and dagger business. Hitting the problem from the shadows was great for some and she could see the high value of the SIS. The agents, everything about it. But it wasn’t her fit.  
  
Nothing was really her fit…or rather, she didn’t fit in anywhere period. She never had. Why she kept looking for a place where she belonged in this insane galaxy, she had no idea.  
  
She’d go back to the Republic Military…at least then, she knew she could hit the enemy straight on.  
  
She was clearing out her locker when she heard a set of footsteps enter the locker room and approach from behind her. The sense of being watched made her turn around. Her gaze met squarely with the blue eyes of Agent Jonas Balkar.  
  
“Jonas,” Zandromeda said.  
  
“Zandi,” Jonas said, he glanced over at her locker. “I came to see how you were doing since the mission. I know it was tough on you.”  
  
“I appreciate the thought, Jonas,” She started, “But you don’t need to worry about me.”  
  
“Looks like I do,” Jonas said, his voice dropping into concern as his eyes moved over to the duffel bag she had half filled with her belongings.  
  
“What are you doing?” came a voice from behind him. Zandi’s pale green eyes moved over Jonas’s shoulder to meet a cold hazel-golden glare.  
  
“I’m emptying my locker, clearly,” She answered, annoyance threaded her tone. She didn’t want to have this conversation with him in the blasted locker room and in front of Jonas. She turned back to her locker.  
  
“You quit,” Theron’s voice was low, accusing and offended.  
  
“Pretty much,” She answered curtly.  
  
“You’re leaving?” Jonas asked. “Like permanently leaving the SIS?”  
  
“Yes, I just gave Director Trant my papers,” she answered folding her jacket and placing it in the duffel bag.  
  
“Because of the last mission,” Jonas said the question as a statement.  
  
“That’s part of it,” She said.  
  
“So, one bad op and you’re out?” Theron said, his voice cold.  
  
She threw a glare at him over her shoulder, “Don’t start with me, Agent Shan. I’m not your unwanted trainee anymore. That’s something I would think you’d be grateful for.”  
  
His eyes blazed at her words but she turned her attention to grabbing the last items in her locker.  
  
“Theron, shut up, will you?” Jonas said before turning back to Zandi. “Look, Zandi, bad ops happen and not just in the SIS.”  
  
“I know that, Jonas,” She said, closing the locker. “I’m well aware of that, actually.”  
  
“So why leave?” Theron’s question sounded more like a challenge, as if he wanted her to justify to him her reasons.  
  
She glared at him again, “My reason are my own, Agent. I don’t need your approval nor do I have to explain myself to you.”  
  
“Theron, buddy, you’re not helping here,” Jonas said.  
  
“Jonas, I appreciate the mediation but it’s not necessary,” Zandi said, she reached out and squeezed his shoulder, meeting his blue eyes. “Suffice it to say, I’m not cut out for this. I’m better on the front lines then behind the scenes.”  
  
“If that’s really what you want,” Jonas said, giving her a nod. “How about a going away drink?”  
  
Zandi gave him a chuckle, “Not tonight. I have a shuttle to catch asap. Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll see each other again.” Hefting her duffel bag over her shoulder she moved around Jonas to head out of the locker room but Theron remained standing in her way. His arms were folded over his chest as he glared down at her.  
  
She met his eyes again. There was something in those golden hazel depths that made her wonder if he had even a sliver of feeling for her. It was gone as quickly as she saw it, making her believe it was just wishful thinking.  
  
“If you’ve got something to say, Theron, then say it,” She said. “Otherwise, excuse me.”  
  
“So this is the end then?” Theron asked. “Of everything.”  
  
“I don’t know, Theron,” She answered truthfully, narrowing her eyes at him and ignoring that small flare of hope. “I suppose that depends on you.”  
  
“I’m not the one leaving,” He said, and she knew he meant whatever it was that had been between them, it was now over.  
  
“I’m leaving the SIS, not your life,” she informed him, ignoring the sting of tears she could feel burning as his words doused that flare of hope to ash.  
  
“One and the same.”  
  
“Really, now?” She said with an arched eyebrow. “I don’t get you, Theron. Why are you so mad about this? I believe it was you who said I wasn’t cut out for any of this when we first met.”  
  
“That was a year ago,” He muttered.  
  
“Yeah, and you’ve kept to the same tune ever since, or are you simply pissed off I disobeyed your orders?” She asked, letting her own anger simmer to the surface if for nothing more than to mask her deeper feelings, the hurt she felt at his words, his glare. She should’ve realized he would be the last person to understand. He had his perfect fit with the SIS. He belonged here. She didn’t belong anywhere.  
  
He didn’t answer her. Her gaze hardened.  
  
“You know what, forget it,” She said in an angry low tone. “Forget all of it. It’s not like any of it mattered to you, anyway.” She shoved past him and left the locker room. She breathed a bit easier away from him but the tightness in her chest was a reminder that she’d slipped up. She let him get too close over the past year.  
  


“What is the matter with you?” Jonas’s voice broke through Theron’s thoughts.  
  
“What?” He asked automatically.  
  
“Really? You’re going to say _‘what’_ like you don’t know what I’m talking about?”  
  
“Leave it alone, Balkar,” Theron said in a warning tone.  
  
Jonas opened his mouth then stopped, looking towards the door Zandromeda just walked out of before glaring back at Theron.  
  
“You know, you sure have a knack for burning bridges,” Jonas said before he made his departure.  
  
Theron ran a hand over his face and sighed heavily. She left…not him.  
  
_But you told her it was over…Whatever ‘it’ was._  
  
Later that evening, he was entering his apartment after pointedly ignoring Jonas and walking away from the man. No, he didn’t want to go out and drink away his ‘sorrows’. He didn’t have any ‘sorrows’. He’d nearly had to threaten Jonas with bodily harm when the idiot attempted to get him to ‘talk’ about Zandi.  
  
There was nothing to talk about, she left. It was simple as that.  
  
Shrugging out of his jacket, he sighed when his eyes landed on his coffee table. Several datapads were scattered about on the top of it along with a few pieces of flimsiplast. It was the flimsi that caught his attention. Little sketches of him and…Zandi. He frowned as he reached down and picked up one piece. It was a sketch of him sitting at his terminal, half turned toward a woman with an amused smirk. Her hands were on his shoulders. She used to interrupt him with shoulder massages or drifting her fingertips along the back of his neck and shoulders. She’d ease the tension out of his muscles…sometimes that led to other things.  
  
Abruptly, he growled and crumpled up the flimsi before throwing it across the room.  
  
She _left._  
  
_But she didn’t leave you…_ He tossed back on his jacket and started towards his door, ignoring his own mind. _You were the one that ended it._


	2. Excerpt 2: Impromptu Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six years have passed since Zandromeda left the SIS. The Newly promoted Lieutenant and Commanding Officer of Havoc Squad bumps into an old friend on Nar Shaddaa while tracking a Rouge War Droid before the Hutts find out said Droid's origins.

_(Six Years Later)_

Stepping out on Nar Shaddaa was a weird experience for Zandromeda. She hadn’t stepped foot on this planet since she was rescued from it by her adoptive parents. She was twenty-three now…she’d been just shy of ten years of age back then. She stood on the landing platform for a moment and breathed in the Nar Shaddaa air. It was…just like she remembered it. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but…with the scents in the air came old memories she didn’t particularly want to remember. She took a deep breath and steeled herself before leading the way towards the shuttle that would take her and her team to the Promenade. Their SIS contact would be waiting and if they were anything like they had been six years ago, the contact was in the Cantina pretending to relax.   
  
“Everything okay, Leftenant?” her medic and newest member of Havoc Squad asked her as they climbed into the taxi shuttle.  
  
“Of course, Elara,” She said, her voice remained her usual practiced calm. “I lived here when I was a young child, it’s the first time I’ve been back in many years.”  
  
“You lived here, sir? On Nar Shaddaa?” Elara asked, curious.  
  
“I did, for a little while,” Zandi answered, “Then I lived on Coruscant until I enlisted into the Republic Military.” She hoped her tone conveyed both calm as well as the hint that this particular conversation was over. Sergeant Dorne seemed to take the hint and nodded respectfully before settling in her seat next to Sergeant Aric Jorgan, a grumpy as hell looking Cathar. He was more a straight shooter like her but not nearly as wrapped in regulations or protocol as Elara was.  
  
Still, if it wasn’t for Tavus and the rest of Havoc Squad defecting…neither of them would even be in the squad.  
  
She frowned, turning her gaze out the window of the shuttle. That was a betrayal she hadn’t seen coming. She’d only been in the squad a few days, newly reassigned when the rest of the squad just up and defected to the Empire. Tavus then left her to die, thinking the last of his ‘loose ends’ was squared away. Jorgan had been a lieutenant when she’d first shown up on Ord Mantell but he quickly took the punch and was demoted for Havoc’s Defection which still made no sense to her.  
  
Betrayal didn’t make sense to her in any form but she was very familiar with it.  
  
The shuttle landed on the Promenade and the three of them disembarked. Zandi looked at her datapad where she’d opened a map of the Promenade. Her SIS contact was indeed in a Cantina.  
  
“Cantina on the lower level,” she said. “We need be discreet. Elara, no quoting regulations in the cantina. We need to be casual. One of you should head to the bar, grab a drink just don’t actually drink it. We are on duty after all.”  
  
Her team mates nodded their acknowledgments as they headed for the Cantina. She wondered if she would know this SIS contact or not. six years was a long time and SIS had many agents. Not that it mattered, Havoc Squad had a mission and it would be completed regardless of who her SIS agent was.  
  
Secretly, she hoped it wasn’t Agent Theron Shan.  
  
They walked into the Cantina and her team followed her orders to the letter. Both Elara and Aric moved towards the bar slipping into something resembling casual as she made her own relaxed way towards the table that was meant as her rendezvous point. She sat down, leaned back and scanned the vicinity casually.  
  
“Well, well, well, look who it is,” a familiar voice spoke before a male presence dropped into a seat across the table from her. She glanced over to see those familiar blue eyes and dark brown hair belonging to none other than Jonas Balkar. She gave a silent thankful prayer to the Force that it was Jonas and not Theron.  
  
“It’s been too long, Jonas,” She said, giving him a warm smile.  
  
“Six years, I think,” Jonas said, smiling back. “Too long, if you ask me.”  
  
“I’ve been busy,” She said with a chuckle.  
  
“Apparently,” His eyes moved to her Havoc Squad insignia. “You’ve been running through the ranks, Lieutenant.”  
  
She rolled her eyes at him, “Not exactly but we’ll leave it at that.”  
  
Jonas chuckled, “As you wish, you’re looking good though.”  
  
“I’m sure you say that to all the girls,” Zandi chuckled.  
  
“Not at all, just the ones with a face like yours,” Jonas quipped.  
  
She arched an expectant eyebrow at him.  
  
“Alright, alright. It may have been six years since I last saw you but I remember that look,” Jonas said, leaning back casually in his seat. “Hope you like the cantina. Not one of my favorites but it is conveniently located.” He lowered his voice then. “There’s a vault, not far from here. It’s a merc operation. Our mutual friend is about to pay them a visit.”  
  
She tilted her head and leaned forward, “Do we have a welcoming party arranged?”  
  
Jonas gave a slight shake of his head, “Not exactly, no. There’s a group of para-military personnel that show up on the scene before that droid attacks. We’ve spotted them casing this particular vault. You could go in and do your thing now but we don’t want the guest of honor to skip the party, do we?”  
  
It made sense to wait for the droid she was after to show up before she went in to take it down, she shrugged at him. “This is your party, Jonas. Just let me know when you want the cake to show up.”  
  
He winked at her, “I like that. You exploding out of a cake. Maybe not in that armor but…”  
  
“Nice try,” she shook her head and easily kept their discussion on track. After a few more minutes of Jonas laying out how he wanted the ‘party’ to go down, she was standing up from her seat.  
  
“Hey, Zandi, don’t be stranger after this gets done, okay?” Jonas said, standing up with her. “Seriously.”  
  
She flashed him a smile, “I’ll see what I can do but this ‘party’ takes priority.”  
  
“Alright, how about a celebratory drink after this is over?”  
  
She laughed and gave him a nod, “I’ll take you up on that, Jonas. It has been too long.”


	3. Excerpt 3: Guess Who?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jonas makes a surprise call to Theron. Theron is not exactly amused.

SIS Agent Jonas Balkar watched as the new commanding officer of the famous Havoc Squad left the cantina followed by a grumpy Cathar and a pretty little blond. He finished his drink before casually walking out of the cantina himself. He pulled out his holo and dialed a specific frequency. He heard the ringing on the line and it was taking quite a long time for the recipient to answer.  
  
No answer, he dialed again.  
  
“Jonas, now is not the best ti-”  
  
“Yeah, you’re always busy,” Jonas cut him off, “But this is pretty important. Guess who I just spent the evening with?”  
  
 _“You’re on Nar Shaddaa?”_ Theron Shan’s voice was tinny through the audio only holo call. _“Must have been Morbo the Hutt.”  
_  
“Oh no, this one is much prettier than a hutt,” he said.  
  
 _“How is this important? Its no-”_  
  
“Oh I think spending the evening with the newest commander of Havoc Squad is pretty important,” Jonas drawled as he leisurely made his way across the Promenade.  
  
 _“Commander Tavus? I didn’t you know swung that way, Jonas,_ ” Theron’s sarcastic response was tempered with annoyance. _“He’s also not ‘new’ with that post.”  
_  
“No, not Tavus. He’s not the commander of Havoc anymore,” Jonas rolled his eyes. “Don’t you read my messages?”  
  
 _“No,”_ came the terse reply.  
  
“Well that explains a lot,” Jonas said as he entered what appeared to be an entrance into a hovel off one of the side streets of the Promenade. “Good thing I’m here to bring you up to speed. Remember Zandromeda Kenobi?”  
  
There was a sudden crashing sound on the line that made Jonas stifle a chuckle.  
  
_“I’m sorry, who?”_ Theron’s voice sounded strained for a second.  
  
“Zandromeda Kenobi,” Jonas said her name clearly. “I know you had a thing going on with her when she was a trainee agent. Thought you’d like to know she’s in charge of Havoc now.”  
  
 _“And why would I care about that?”_ Theron’s voice was more agitated the more the call went on.  
  
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe it had to do with how you mentioned her name every so often for six months after she left SIS,” Jonas said, rolling his eyes again. The guy was dense when it came to women.  
  
 _“That was six years ago, Jonas. Get to the point.”_  
  
“Alright, alright,” Jonas said with an audible sigh. “I just spent part of the evening with her. She’s the new Commander Havoc Squad. She’s looking real good.”  
  
There was silence over the line for a moment.  
  
 _“What is your point, Jonas?”  
_  
“You seriously feel nothing about this?”  
  
 _“Why should I?”_  
  
“Alright then, that’s all I needed to know.”  
  
 _“What?”_  
  
“Oh nothing,” Jonas muttered and covered his mouth to stifle any laughter that tried to escape.  
  
 _“You’re not going to…pursue her-”_  
  
Jonas made a scratchy sound with his voice, “ _Scritch…_ You’re breaking up… _scriiiiitch._ Talk to ya later!” Ending the holo-call, he turned his attention to walking through the hovel looking lobby and into a small command post for SIS operations on Nar Shaddaa. He didn’t have any true intentions of pursuing Zandi, he knew her well enough to know they’d never work out but…it didn’t hurt to have Theron think he was. The guy had tells and Jonas could read them easily such as his pretending he didn’t care. He wasn’t an imbecile. He remembered how Theron acted when Zandi left SIS six years ago. It was never outright said, but Jonas had all the confirmation he’d ever needed to know there had been something between them.  
  
As he sat down at a terminal, Jonas briefly wondered if Theron knew where her resignation had led her over the course of the last six years. He hadn’t even had to look for the information and he didn’t, he wasn’t a stalker. But her name had cropped up from time to time.  
  
Knowing Theron, Jonas figured he’d probably done all he could to block her name and face from his memory.  
  
_She’s not the kind of woman you forget, Theron._

 

On the other side of the galaxy, light-years away from Nar Shaddaa, SIS Agent Theron Shan sat down heavily on the pilot’s chair of his ship. Whatever he’d thought Jonas was going to bother him about it certainly was not Zandi. He hadn’t expected her name to be uttered from Jonas’s mouth in this century. They’d come to blows the last time Zandi was mentioned in a conversation…that had been, what? four years ago? Five? Jonas had deliberately brought her up, telling Theron to either call her up or move on. That was when he realized, truly realized that Jonas had known about his little liaison with Zandi. It had hit him hard when she left SIS. A little too hard if he was honest. She’d left him a few holos, a few messages that he had promptly deleted and never read nor responded to. He’d been trying every which way to make her leaving the SIS as if she had been leaving him. But the truth was _he’d told her_ , it was over when she left. He’d thrown himself into his work after that. Cutting it too close a few times simply because he’d been distracted.  
  
It had taken Jonas and a few of his rather callous remarks to get him riled up and throwing fists at the other Agent. After that little bar-fight, Theron had sobered up a bit and admitted he’d needed the ass whooping.  
  
They’d never mentioned her again.  
  
Until now.  
  
Why the hell did his chest get tight and his heart get weird when Jonas dropped her name?  
  
It had been six years. He’d long since moved on.  
  
 _So did she_ , he thought.  
  
There had been rumors that someone she had dated was flagged as a high security risk. Jonas had told him something about it. A man, believed to have Imperial connections, had been dating Zandi for some time before the guy apparently just ‘disappeared’ when their people seemed to get too close.  
  
Theron had asked after her safety and if she was possibly being investigated…  
  
 _Well, good thing it was Jonas on that job_ , Theron thought.  
  
A memory of her played across his mind.  
  
 _He stood in the living-room of his apartment, still damp from a long awaited shower with a towel wrapped around his waist when his door chirped._  
  
_“Just a minute!” he’d called and turned to head across the living area towards his wardrobe when the door slid open anyway. He whirled around, his hand going for his blaster when her laughter reached his ears.  
_  
 _“Told you I wouldn’t wait for ‘just a minute’,” Zandi had said with an amused smile lighting up those brilliant green eyes. Her short hair was damp and brushed, the crimson red of it shining even in the dim light of his apartment.  
_  
 _“Thought you wouldn’t show up until after six?” Theron said, letting his hand fall to his side.  
_  
_“I got bored,” She said with a shrug and deposited several small containers he only just realized she’d been holding. His gaze took her in. She was short, curvy and tended to wear clothing that left much to the imagination. Her civilian clothes were a simple pair of semi-tight dark blue pants that flowed over a pair of black shoes. ‘Flats’, she called them. Her shirt was a loose, light pale blue blouse that buttoned up on the sides. Still he could see every curve.  
_  
 _She straightened up and glanced over at him with a side smile before sashaying her way across the room to him.  
_  
 _“So, I see you’re in no rush to enjoy the lovely dinner I went to trouble of ordering,” she said playfully as she sidled up to him, reaching out and running a finger down the middle of his still damp chest.  
_  
_He gave her an amused grin, “Oh I’m starving, but its a different type of starving.”  
_  
 _That was when she pushed him back with enough force he landed on his bed, on his back.  
_  
_“Funny thing, I know exactly what that type of hunger is,” She waggled her thing eyebrows at him before she danced away out of his reach.  
_  
 _Gone was the woman who was cool, calm and professional when they were SIS agent and SIS agent in training. She was something else outside of work._  
  
Theron shook the memory from his mind and closed his eyes tight. If there was a time to have a headache it would be right now.  
  
“Theron?!” came Master Ngani Zho’s voice as the older Jedi Master wandered in from the galley. “We must go to the Vezsla System!”  
  
Theron groaned inwardly, or maybe those kind of memories of Zandi weren’t so bad at times like this.


	4. Excerpt 4: Celebratory Drinks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi introduces her long time Best friend to an old Friend over a round of celebratory drinks. 
> 
> *shout out to Greyias for the wonderfully funny Azaria Dace and for joining in on writing this!*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zandi and Azaria are like life long best friends and couldn't be anymore different. Azaria Dace also belongs to a friend, Greyias. Thanks Angel Face for letting Azaria play with Zandi XD

“It's about time, Dace,” Zandromeda said with an eye roll as her only longtime friend a few years her senior came sauntering towards her on the Promenade, thirty minutes late. Azaria Dace was a tall imposing Mirialan with short hair and mischievous eyes. She was usually dressed in what Zandi referred to as, her “Smuggling” clothes but this time, Zandi saw a notable difference. Azaria was lacking a shirt under her drelliad jacket. Zandi’s eyes narrowed.  
  
“What happened to your shirt?” Zandi asked, straightening up from the wall adjacent to the Cantina they were about to enter.  
  
“I lost it in a bet with Darmas,” Dace said with a shrug.  
  
“I don’t want to know about this,” Zandi said with a wave of her hand. Her attempt to dodge any risque details of her best friends latest exploits with that gambler was useless as Azaria just grinned at her.  
  
“Well, since you asked _so_ nicely,” Azaria said casually as she fell into step beside Zandi as they entered the Cantina. “It was a rousing game of strip Sabaac—”  
  
“Would ya look at that, Jonas is still waiting for us,” Zandi interrupted, gesturing across the cantina towards a table in the back where one handsome man with dark hair and blue eyes was seated casually. He gave a nod and a smile when he saw Zandi. She saw his eyes moved towards Azaria and look her over.  
  
“Oh, so _this_ is the Jonas you’ve mentioned,” Azaria said, giving the SIS agent the same look over he was doing to her. She dropped her voice a notch. “He seems fun.”  
  
“You haven’t even said hello.” Zandi rolled her eyes.  
  
“Details, details.”  
  
They made it to the table.  
  
“Azaria, meet Jonas,” Zandi said taking a seat. “Jonas, meet Azaria.”  
  
“It's very lovely to meet you, Azaria,” Jonas said with a suave smile as he stood and reached out a hand in greeting. “I didn’t realize our lovely Lieutenant here, had such a wonderful taste in friends.”  
  
“Funny, I was about to say the same thing,” Azaria chuckled and shook Jonas’s hand before taking her own seat. She leaned back in her chair and gave a nod to Zandi.  
  
“Of course, you were,” Zandi said with a chuckle and an eye roll.  
  
“Hey, he hasn’t quoted a single regulation since we sat down.”  
  
“You _just_ sat down.”  
  
“Exactly.” Azaria just laughed then seemed to get serious, “Okay, so you’re buying right, Zandi?”  
  
“Oh no,” Zandi said with a shake of her head. “We buy our own drinks.”  
  
Azaria rolled her eyes and made a face, “Lame.”  
  
“Now, Zandi, that’s no way to treat your friends,” Jonas said, with amusement in his eyes.  
  
“Yeah, _Zan-dee_ ,” Azaria echoed, managing to draw out her nickname into four syllables. “Listen to the man.”  
  
“This was your idea, Jonas,” Zandi said ignoring Azaria’s play on her name, “And I know how both of you are. I’m saving my credits for equipment and ammo.”  
  
“I wouldn’t dream of making lovely women such as yourselves pay for your own drinks, my treat,” Jonas said, glancing around for a waiter.  
  
“Jonas, I can see already that we’re going to be the best of friends.”  
  
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Jonas,” Zandi laughed and shared a look with Azaria.  
  
“Hey, I will never turn down free drinks,” Azaria nodded.  
  
“Excellent,” Jonas said as he flagged down a server. They all gave their orders and the server left.  
  
“I have a tab, don’t worry about it,” Jonas said with a grin as he leaned back in his chair.  
  
“I’m not worrying about it,” Zandi said. “You’ll regret it in the morning enough for both of us.”  
  
“Shh, you’ll scare him off,” Azaria said.  
  
Zandi scoffed, “Oh no, Jonas will more likely think it’s a challenge.”  
  
Jonas shook his head and laughed. He didn’t seem at all worried and given what Zandi remembered of his cantina excursions six years ago, she wasn’t surprised. She settled back into her seat as the server returned with their drinks.  
  
It was a comfortable and highly amusing next few hours for Zandi as she watched Jonas attempt to match Azaria drink for drink. She kept her own pace and had barely ordered her third drink when Jonas casually mentioned Azaria’s interesting ensemble, meaning lack of a shirt.  
  
“Trust me, you really don’t want to know,” Zandi said with sigh.  
  
“Nonsense,” Jonas waved her comment off, his slightly reddened eyes on Azaria. “I’m sure it’s a riveting story.”  
  
“Depends on what you mean by riveting,” Zandi muttered even though she was amused by Jonas watching her best friend intently.  
  
Azaria grinned at Jonas and waved Zandi off, “Oh, don’t mind her. She’s just annoyed she didn’t think of it first.”  
  
Zandi rolled her eyes, “Yeah, that must be what it is.”  
  
“Anyone ever told you that you’re a grumpy drunk?” Azaria shot back.  
  
“Sounds like another person I know,” Jonas said with a knowing grin. “But please, continue.”  
  
“Well, I have this friend, you see. A _good_ friend, if you take my drift.”  
  
“I have been known to have several good friends as well.” Jonas smirked.  
  
“Are drinks usually involved in these friendships?”  
  
“It’s been known to happen.”  
  
“Well,” Azaria leaned back in her seat, intentionally letting the jacket flop open and show the smooth, green skin of her abs, “me and this buddy of mine, we like to play games.”  
  
Jonas’s eyebrow shot up, lips pressing together as he made what could have been a strangled noise. This just made the Mirialan grin wider.  
  
“Well, I was thinking more of Pazaak, but good to know where your mind goes after a few rounds, Mr. Balkar.”  
  
“I thought I told you to call me Jonas.”  
  
“And I thought you wanted to hear the story.”  
  
He mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key, before crossing his arms as he sat rapt with attention.  
  
“Well, ol’ Darmas loves a good round of Sabacc, but we were rapidly running out of collateral as the night went on. So he decided to raise the stakes.” Azaria grinned, kicking her boots up on the table. “Turns out, I’m not so great a Sabacc player. He offered me a rematch the next time I’m in town, see if I can win my shirt back.”  
  
By the end of the story, the Jonas’s smirk had widened to a huge grin. “Oh, that is interesting.”  
  
“Oh?”  
  
“Jonas here fancies himself a Sabacc player,” Zandi said dryly.  
  
“Fancies? I’m the best Sabacc player this side of Coruscant! I probably could win this fair maiden’s shirt back if I put my mind to it,” Jonas paused then added, “or maybe see if she wouldn’t mind playing a few rounds with me.”  
  
“Fresh out of shirts to put up as collateral,” Azaria grinned.  
  
“I’m sure we could work out a payment plan,” Jonas shot back.  
  
Zandi shook her head laughing before taking another sip of her drink, “Do me a favor and warn me before you have that little game.”  
  
Azari glanced at Zandi with a knowing wink, “Why’s that?”  
  
“I want to make sure I’m across the galaxy for that rendezvous,” Zandi said, “I’d rather not try and squeeze through a door with two other people trying to run for cover.”  
  
“You need to loosen up and have fun once in awhile, ya know,” Azaria admonished.  
  
“This is all the fun I need, thanks,” Zandi said, raising her glass as if to toast before taking another sip.  
  
“I seem to remember you were a bit more...wild six years ago,” Jonas said, a knowing smile spread across his face.  
  
“Like you said,” Zandi took another sip of her drink. “That was six years ago.”  
  
“Oooh,” Azaria piped up, looking over at Zandi with curiosity in her eyes. “You never told me any wild stories of your time in the SIS.”  
  
“Yeah well, I’m sure me being wild isn't exactly as crazy as you think, Zari,” Zandi said, the smile she’d worn most of the evening was slowly beginning to fade. “And no, I’m not giving you the juicy details.”  
  
“Oh, come on,” Azaria said, “Where’s the fun in that?”  
  
“I’m sure you can come up with a way to have fun without it,” Zandi said, taking the last swig of her drink. “Anyway, I have to get to my ship. Early rise tomorrow for a final debrief with General Garza.”  
  
“Lame,”Azaria said scrunching up her face at Zandi. Zandi just gave her a smile, though this time it didn’t meet her eyes all the way.  
  
“Good night, you two,” Zandi said as she stood up. “Just for the record, I’m not bailing either you out of any hutt prisons tonight so don’t go getting into trouble.” She turned then and started making her way across the cantina, hoping her gait was slow and casual enough that even Azaria wouldn’t notice she was in a bit of hurry to get away from any more mentions of her time in SIS and therefore an old flame.


	5. Excerpt 5: Family Time, Strange Hack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandromeda goes home to visit her young son on Leave while across the galaxy someone attempts to hack into the Nar Shaddaa SIS cell.

Havoc Squad had hit the ground running on Ord Mantell. They certainly hadn’t stopped on Coruscant or Nar Shaddaa. Zandromeda hadn’t had a full night of sleep since Ord Mantell. The betrayal of her very comrades regardless of how short she had actually been with them had hit her pretty hard. It wasn’t something she showed. She’d long since learned to keep her mask in place regardless of how fatigued she was. Focusing on her job as a soldier and now as the Commander of Havoc Squad was usually enough but there were times she needed to break away from that and go home. Recenter herself as her adoptive mother taught her. Relax with her father and enjoy time with her young son.  
  
So when General Garza gave Havoc Squad a few days of paid leave while her people gathered more leads and intel on the Havoc Traitors, she set course back for Coruscant. Back to the one place in the galaxy that she felt safe and where she belonged. Her parent’s apartment was her sanctuary from the rest of the galaxy.  
  
Elara opted for staying with the ship and catching up on ‘reports as per regulations’ and her own personnel requirements due to her defection from the Empire. Jorgan chose enjoying his leave time with some ‘old buddies’ and catching up on Hutt ball matches. As for Forex, their enthusiastically patriotic war droid, opted for taking on a few extra assignments from Spec Force Command while they were on leave.  
  
Zandromeda parked her speeder on a landing pad outside a large apartment in Coruscant’s upper Residential district. Dismounting from the speeder, she turned and looked at the Coruscant skyline. The sunset visage of Coruscant was gorgeous. Various shades of orange danced and intertwined with various golden hues. It was beautiful to her, as always, but for the last six years…those golden hues reminded her of Theron. She’d commented to him once, that she loved his eyes, as they resembled the Courscant sunsets that she always associated with the better times in her life. It had been impulsive of her to have blurted that out to him but she wasn’t sorry she had. She’d expected him to laugh at her…but in a rare moment of romantic maturity, he’d smiled and kissed her.  
  
“You’re just in time for dinner,” came a warm familiar voice from the direction of the apartment’s main entrance.  
  
She turned and smiled at the Mirialan who stood in the door way. Her adoptive mother wore a lavender robe over a silver blouse and black slacks. Her white hair tumbled about her shoulders. The smile on her face was warm and genuine as always and she rose her arms as Zandi approached her.  
  
“Hi, Mom,” Zandi said as she embraced her mother. Her mother’s embrace was snug and warm, a reminder that there was always a safe place for her.  
  
“Hello, Lieutenant,” Careenya Kenobi said as amusement and pride mixed in her voice as the embrace ended. “Let me look at you.”  
  
“Mom, you saw me two months ago,” Zandi said feigning exasperation as her mother looked her over. “I haven’t changed that much.”  
  
“No, but you’ve been in combat quite a bit from what I have heard,” Careenya said with a chuckle before she took Zandi’s hands.  
  
“I figured you’d hear about the promotion,” Zandi said as her mother led her into the apartment.  
  
“Yes, it was so nice to hear it third hand from Senator Karsul,” Careenya drawled as they entered the foyer.  
  
“Senator Karsul spoke to you?” Zandi said in surprise as they crossed the foyer.  
  
“Oh not me, personally, no. He spoke to your father.”  
  
“Oh,” was all Zandi could say. The timing of when Senator Karsul spoke to her father, Senator Zenith of Balmorra, was really the difference between night and day. If it was after the informal Senate Inquiry into the ‘defection’ of Havoc Squad then…he wasn’t going to be too happy with her. On the other hand, if it was after she and her team rescued Karsul from Wraith’s little bomb trap in Port Raga then he might not be so unhappy with her.  
  
“Oh, Zandi, you don’t have to worry,” Careenya said as they entered the family room, “Your father is proud of you.” She’d turned around as she said that, meeting her daughter’s eyes.  
  
“I hope you’re right, Mom,” Zandi said, “He wasn’t too happy when I joined the military in the first place.”  
  
“That was a long time ago and…” Careenya started and dropped her voice. “He’s been through war, through combat too, honey. He worries over you constantly. We both do.”  
  
She knew that, knew her mother was right. Both of them had been through many battles when Sith arrived in the first war before they sacked Coruscant, in fact if it wasn’t for the war over Balmorra, they wouldn’t have met. Her father had been a resistance fighter on Balmorra before he’d entered politics and her mother…was a former Jedi Master. Still, there was always that little part of her that was a young girl again seeing her father’s disappointed look when she’d done something wrong…or seven years ago when she’d enlisted into the military.  
  
It still stung sometimes even though they had patched up their relationship long since then.  
  
“Before you go and see your father, there is someone whose been missing you something awful,” Careenya said, taking her attention away from her inner thoughts and to something significantly better.   
Zandi smiled as a young boy of no more than five came rushing towards her from the other side of the living area.  
  
“Mommy!” Ezekiel Kenobi exclaimed, a bounding little boy of red hair and pale green eyes. The smile that lit his face was all that Zandi needed to feel that things were right in the galaxy even if it was actually the opposite.  
  
She bent down and scooped him up in mid air after he launched himself at her. He squealed in delight as she tossed him the air and swung him around in an tight embrace.  
  
“Hey there, big man,” she said with a smile.  
  
This…this was right were she needed to be.  
  


Half a galaxy away, SIS Agent Jonas Balkar was busy studying something very strange and rather alarming that had shown up as a priority alert on his terminal. Someone on Nar Shaddaa had just hacked into the SIS systems but only those connected to the Nar Shaddaa operations. Jonas frowned as he went through several key protocols and alerted the nearest slicers. They were tracking someone going through the system in such a strange way that it seemed as if the course was random. It wouldn’t be too much of a problem if it had been random but it wasn’t. Certain files in their local database were pinging alerts.  
  
“Have you guys caught this person yet?” Jonas called out across the main control room in the SIS headquarters.  
  
“No, sir,” three slicers shouted back in unison.  
  
“What the kriff,” Jonas muttered as he used his own slicing skills to try and head the intruder off in their system but whoever this person was, was very very good. _Too good,_ Jonas thought.   
  
“Report,” the Senior Agent on the premises ordered as he strolled into the room.  
  
“We’ve been hacked,” Jonas answered before continuing a few more muttered curses.  
  
Then just as fast as it had happened, the intruder was out of the system. Jonas frowned.  
  
“Whoever it was, it’s over now,” one of the slicers announced.  
  
“No, the attack is done, but with how he managed through the entire system…there’s no telling what he or she did,” Jonas said, frowning as he brought up a list of the files that pinged unauthorized use. Several were marked ‘Top Secret’, a few of those, he didn’t even have access to. Many of the files, however, were not marked Top Secret.  
  
In fact, the list continued to grow.  
  
“The entire local database has been compromised,” Jonas growled.  
  
“Then get on tracing the attacker, he had to have broken in from somewhere,” The senior agent barked.  
  
Jonas turned to him and glared, “Yeah, we’ll get right on that. In case you didn’t realize it, this person covered their tracks well, too well.”  
  
“They didn’t leave a single clue?”  
  
“Oh yeah, a very vague clue,” Jonas said looking back at the screen with the entire database on it. “They were after something specific and the best way to do that and give themselves time to make a get away with whatever they wanted…they opened every single file.”  
  
“Download logs.”  
  
“Negative, sir,” One of the slicers said, “They wiped themselves from the system.”  
  
“This is not good.”  
  
“No,” Jonas said, frowning at the names of the files out of his security clearance. “It’s worse.”  
  
Every single one of those files had the name, _Tarentatek_ , on it. He didn’t think they referred to the Sith beast.  
  
“We need to scrap this base and unplug the database.”  
  
“No,” Jonas shook his head, “Uprooting wouldn’t do us any good in finding the person responsible.”  
  
“Everything, all of our operations on Nar Shaddaa are compromised,” The Senior Agent snapped.  
  
“Yeah, Alert the Director but there is only one SIS Agent I know that just might have enough skill to find out who and if not who…then exactly what they were after,” Jonas said, glaring back at the man standing in front of him. “They didn’t just compromise operations for the fun of it. They were and still are after something.”  
  
With that, he turned on his heel and left the room to make a call.  
  
Theron Shan had the cybernetics and the slicing skills that most of the Nar Shaddaa cell had no hope to manage. If this wasn’t just some random attack by some pathetic excuse for a criminal which it wasn’t given how sophisticated the SIS security protocols were, the entire Republic was in danger.  
  
Little did he realize then, that it wasn’t the Republic that was in danger, rather than one family.


	6. Excerpt 6: "Chaser"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron has a 'liasion' to relieve stress but it back fires on him a bit. Then Jonas calls him.

Theron rolled over on his side and came awake with a start when he came into contact with a warm body. He stilled, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. The memory of the previous night came to him quickly enough. He was in his…partner’s suite in one of Coruscant’s many hotels. The suite was dark, night had fallen. He glanced at the chronometer. It was the middle of the night. He glanced over at the woman next to him and carefully moved to slip out of the bed without waking her up. Her breathing remained even and shallow. She was still asleep. Good, he didn’t want to deal with the scene that would ensue if she woke up. Not that she was of a dramatic sort but…he knew when people started to get too invested. He had no desire to get into a committed relationship, he was far too busy with simply his job for even squeezing in these little excursions. He’d been clear about that when he first met this woman here at this very hotel. She’d said she understood.  
  
As had happened before, that ‘no strings attached’ rule of his was getting overstepped.  
  
He could feel it, see the signs.  
  
And it wasn’t about to get any further then last night.  
  
He carefully moved about the room to gather his clothes as quietly as he could. There was enough ambient light pouring in from the suite windows that he wasn’t in danger of stumbling or bumping into anything. He was mostly dressed when he heard her stir. He paused in his motion of buckling his belt but she didn’t move anymore. Breathing out in relief, he finished buckling his belt and sat down on the nearby sofa and proceeded to pull on his boots.  
  
He really needed to stop doing this. It wasn’t as if these excursions into a stranger’s intimacy did much for him. It relieved some of the stress of his job but that was it. There were other ways to relieve stress, he knew that. It was petty the reason he’d first done this, five and a half years ago. He’d heard of Zandi having moved on from him entirely…and he went after a rebound. He shook his head at himself. _Idiot,_ he thought, _what are you fifteen?_ Zandi probably would have said “Yes, yes you are” to that question.  
  
That was another reason he needed to stop that. She always came to mind, always drifted across his mind.  
  
“Have you ever thought about moving on? Letting her go?” came a voice from the bed.  
  
His head shot up and he frowned in the darkness at the woman now sitting up in the bed, looking at him. It was like she’d been reading his mind just then. Her face was covered in shadow but the light from the windows was striking her long red hair. He blinked for a moment. The soft light made her shade of red darker, crimson. The exact shade of Zandi’s hair…He knew that in regular light this woman’s hair was too light…It wasn’t the same.  
  
 _Dammit, you’re comparing again,_ he frowned.  
  
“Scowling at me isn’t an answer,” said the woman.  
  
He ran a hand over his head. That was another thing…he always somehow managed to compare whatever woman he was with to Zandromeda…  
  
“Letting who go?” He said as he stood up. The perspective changed his sight of her hair, keeping it from morphing into that particular shade of red.  
  
“Whoever she is that you’re hung up on.”  
  
“I’m not hung up on anyone,” He said as he looked for his gloves and bracers.  
  
“Oh right, you’re just some random guy who has commitment issues,” She said dryly.  
  
“No, just a guy not looking for anything more than-”  
  
“Yeah I got that part,” she said. “Except you’re a bad liar.”  
  
He arched an eyebrow as he slid his bracer’s into place, “Yeah? I don’t really care.”  
  
“Obviously,” she spat. “I’m over this. You throw all these mixed signals and really…your just not over her.”  
  
“No-”  
  
“Just save it,” she said, pushing off the covers and moving from the bed, gathering her own belonging. “You don’t even realize what you do half the time.”  
  
“What are you talking about?” Theron asked then. She was getting worked up for nothing.  
  
“You act all sweet, charming and suave then say you don’t care?” The woman whirled around, her blue eyes flashing. “If you really just wanted sex, you wouldn’t act that way. You’re not my first rodeo, honey.” She pulled a loose shirt over her head. “You look into my eyes but you’re always seeing somebody else, thinking of her.”  
  
He frowned at her.  
  
“I’m done letting you get closer and closer…” she said pulling on the rest of her clothes and her shoes. “You aren’t doing me or yourself any kind of favors with this. So why don’t you just go and try to get her back.”  
  
“Who are you even talking about?” Theron shot back. This wasn’t exactly the drama he thought would happen if she woke up…  
  
“Whoever the kriff ‘Zandi’ is!” She shouted at him.  
  
He stared at her in shock as the name she uttered slapped him in the face.  
  
She gave an annoyed laugh, “Yeah, you didn’t even realize it. You called me Zandi last night.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Oh?” she said sounding indignant. “That’s all you can say? _Oh?_ ”  
  
He opened his mouth to speak but there wasn’t anything he could say. She was looking for an apology and while he wasn’t too keen on calling other women by Zandi’s name…as he certainly didn’t mean it; he wasn’t about to apologize. That would only let her think there was hope for an extension to this.  
  
She just threw up her hands and turned to grab her purse shaking her head as she headed towards the door.  
  
“You’re doing nothing but chasing after her,” She said as she paused on the threshold. “Do yourself a favor and let her go if you want to continue ‘no strings attached’ sessions. Otherwise…go find _her_.”  
  
With that she was out the door.  
  
Theron blinked and strangely felt…relieved.  
  
Until his holo-comm beeped at him. When he saw the frequency, he groaned.  
  
 _Really weird timing, Jonas._


	7. Excerpt 7: Investigating A Hack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus calls on Theron to investigate the strange hack attack on the Nar Shaddaa cell database. Theron discovers something unsettling.

Theron was out of the hotel suite faster than was probably wise this early in the morning (or late at night as the case maybe) without an ounce of caf. The woman from the night before was out of his mind completely. His only concerned was getting back to the SIS main headquarters where Director Trant would no doubt be pacing a hole into his office floor. Jumping on his speeder he keyed up a holo call to his Director through his cybernetic implants. Might as well jump the gun and contact him, Marcus would contact him soon enough anyway.  
  
“Theron,” Marcus’s voice sounded. “I take it you heard.”  
  
“Yeah, Jonas,” Theron answered as he kicked on the speeder and took off through the sky-lanes of Coruscant.  
  
“I need you on it,” Marcus ordered. He sounded tired and stressed. Theron couldn’t blame him. If the operations on Nar Shaddaa had been compromised by a very skilled slicer…then it would only be a matter of time before the attacker got bolder and hit other cells. They needed to trace the slicer, find out exactly what they were after…and neutralize them then find out who they worked for.  
  
“I’m already on my way,” Theron said. “I’ll be there in two minutes.”  
  
“We need answers…and whoever this person is as well as who they work for,” Marcus said before terminating the call.  
  
_Already ahead of you, Boss,_ Theron thought as he took a few turns and short cuts back to SIS headquarters. With in a minute and fifty seconds he was walking swiftly through the building’s back entrance. It was only after two in the morning, the front entrance was sealed shut and the security guards were probably dozing off in their posts. He didn’t want to deal with that nonsense, not tonight. Hitting the elevator, he keyed the floor number he was after and waited, impatiently tapping his foot before the doors slid open. He nearly jogged to the back of the floor where the entrance to the main SIS database’s terminals and consoles was located. Typing in a series of codes as well as his own ID code, the door slid open. Stepping through, he paused as the door behind him slid shut. The room he was in was empty and more akin to an airlock than anything else. He moved forward to the door ahead of him and keyed in the same codes from before. The locks clicked and the heavy blast shield door slid open. It was a good form of security but damn did it get annoying when one was in a hurry.  
  
The final room was a large room filled with computers and generators and servers. The entire SIS database in physical form. It wasn’t as impressive as one might think but it also wasn’t the only room in existence. SIS wasn’t stupid, they had back ups to back ups. Light-years of security programs and parameters to protect every single one. Wherever a cell was located or based, there was a database for that cell, with the same extent of security in place.  
  
And someone had managed to successfully slice into and compromise an entire cell in a matter of minutes.  
  
Theron took that as a personal attack. As a slicer himself and one of the best in SIS, he was damned determine to find this bastard.  
  
Four SIS techs with varying slicing skills were all hunkered over their terminals. At his entrance, they all turned and looked at him. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk and just shooed them out. When they had all left, he took a seat at the main database terminal seated in the middle of the room. Tapping at the console, he keyed his ID Codes and started connecting his cybernetics to the mainframe.  
Within minutes he was connected to the Nar Shaddaa database.  
  
After a few hours of scouring the entirety of that database, he found the patterns, the trail of the enemy slicer and started following it, working his way out from what he thought was the ‘middle’. He could see the timestamps of the files from when they were last opened and how long they were opened. Nearly every single one he saw was open for barely a second…Until he reached Top Secret files labeled _Tarentatek_. Each one was open for thirty to forty seconds a piece. Long enough for a full download of each file. He was beginning to see a pattern. When one of the _Tarentatek_ files had been opened…then others from different parts of the database were opened.  
  
_Good trick to hide what was being downloaded at the time,_ Theron thought. He flagged the entirety of the _Tarentatek_ files for Director Trant. He didn’t have access to the files but he knew the Director would. He then proceeded to spend the next few hours searching for any other files that were opened longer than half a second.  
  
When he came across the final batch of files in the Database…his mood went from bad to worse.  
  
Three Havoc Squad Personnel files as well as files to do with an operation authorized by General Garza and the Director to secure a war-droid by the designation of M1-4X. He frowned, remembering something Jonas had mentioned a few nights ago…Zandi was commanding Havoc Squad. He checked the files and opened them.  
  
After triple checking the time stamps, Zandi’s file had been opened longer then the rest…including the _Tarentatek_ files. The reason being, her personal record of her brief time in SIS had been sealed within her main personnel file…  
  
Theron blinked…Apparently the slicer had known how to slice into that portion of her file. Then he noted that part of that file was gone. Missing.  
  
He frowned and skimmed through the file to find out what exactly could be missing.  
  
Her next of kin, Theron thought with a cold feeling of dread rushing through his veins and pouring into his gut.  
  
He flagged her file marking it with the highest alert for Marcus.  
  
There had to be a connection between Zandromeda Kenobi and the _Tarentatek_ files…why else would the slicer go for those files specifically. That pool of dread in his gut coiled tighter. He had a very bad feeling about this.  
  
Disconnecting from the Nar Shaddaa database then terminating his cybernetic connection to the SIS mainframe, he pushed away from the terminal. He stood there for a moment with a frown.  
  
Whatever was going on, Zandi was a target…and possibly her family.  
  
Just as he was about to exit the database center, he was pinged by Marcus.  
  
“Director,” Theron said, tapping his cybernetics over his left eye.  
  
“We have a problem, My office. Now.” Was all the Director said before the call was cut.  
  
_That’s an understatement, Director,_ Theron thought as he double timed it out of the mainframe and headed up to the SIS Director’s Office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really have no freaking clue how SIS and their stuff is set up...but this all made sense to me XD


	8. Excerpt 8: "The Terentatek"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi and her squad are ambushed by unknown assailants.

Zandromeda liked Tatooine. She had fond memories of the planet given her parents had a ‘vacation’ homestead on the planet. She wasn’t overly fond of the heat or the hostile sand people. She adored the Jawas. It was with more ease she stepped foot outside the Anchorhead Spaceport then she had on Nar Shaddaa. Her weekend of leave had been cut short as she expected it would be. General Garza had commed her yesterday morning to tell her to round up her squad and head out to Nar Shaddaa. As bittersweet as leaving her home and her young son as always was, she wouldn’t have him anywhere else. The safest place in the galaxy for him was with her parents. Still, it stung to only have two days with him and he hadn’t been fond of her leaving again so soon. Even so, he was so brave already at just five years old. He cried a little but put on a brave face for her.  
  
She could only hope that one day he would understand that everything she did in the military now she did for him.  
  
One day, she would bring him here to meet the Jawas she told him about in his bed time stories.  
  
Elara walked silently next to her as they headed for the office of Anchorhead’s Mayor. Aric and Forex followed behind them.  
  
Both Elara and Aric had been disappointed to hear their leave was cut short but they were both eager to get the traitors they were chasing. Forex was his…usually enthusiastically patriotic self.  
After speaking with the Mayor and learning that their target was none other than Fuse, they set out across the sand dunes of Tatooine. By the end of the next three days, they’d managed to save a remorseful Fuse though the general in charge of him managed to escape with Fuse’s bomb designs. It was a tough decision but she’d made her mind up almost instantly. Fuse was…remorseful, sincerely. He was horrified that his bomb designs had been used to kill innocent civilians just to ‘test’ them. He’d still betrayed the Republic and so he would be imprisoned but she hoped his help in this particular mission…would be enough to gain some leniency.  
  
As for the bomb designs and the General that escaped with them…she’d hunt him down.  
  
Her team was making its way back through the desert towards Anchorhead. Dusk was only a few hours away.  
  
Her speeder’s readout flashed read when suddenly her vision went sideways and tumbled about as she was roughly knocked from her speeder. She hit the ground, her face grating against the rough sand as she rolled a few feet before skidding to a halt.  
  
“Lieutenant!” She heard Elara call out.  
  
Adrenaline was rushing through her system, no doubt she’d be sore later. She rose her head and pushed up to her knees as she scanned the vicinity.  
  
She saw Elara and Aric rushing towards her from where they’d brought their speeders to a stop. Forex was already looking about and securing a perimeter around them.  
  
“Sir? Are you alright, sir?” Elara asked, already scanning her as she got to her feet.  
  
“What happened?” Aric asked.  
  
“Good question,” Zandi said, running a hand through her hair to shake out at least some of the sand she could feel. “My readouts flashed red then..I was on the ground.”  
  
Aric frowned, “Speeders come standard with fail-safes…” He turned and headed to inspect her speeder which was now sticking out of the sand.  
  
“Hostiles on our perimeter!” Shouted Forex as he waved his canons in the direction where he detected enemies moving towards them.  
  
“Use the speeders for cover!” Zandi shouted as she and Elara dashed back towards the speeders.  
  
“Four targets moving forward,” Aric said into their comm frequency. She hefted her blaster rifle and peeked over the speeder.  
  
They targets were dressed in colors that would normally let them blend into the sands around them. Except each one had a nice shiny weapon in hand.  
  
“Looks like vibro-swords,” Aric said, confirming her suspicions. “And one has what looks like blasters.”  
  
An explosion erupted behind them a few feet away, then another to their left…then their right.  
  
“Lieutenant,” Aric said, “I’ve got a shot.”  
  
“Take it,” She ordered.  
  
A single sniper round sounded, muffled. One of the hostiles fell to the ground.  
  
Then got back up to their feet.  
  
“What the kriff?” Aric said, sounding both offended and stunned.  
  
“That’s new,” Zandi murmured. “Damn good armor. We need to get out of here or we’ll be in hand-to-hand combat.”  
  
“Too late, Lieutenant,” Forex’s voice sounded. “Three more hostiles incoming from our six!”  
  
Zandi’s head whirled around to see the hostiles incoming. These were running towards them, dressed in garb similar to the Sand People but…their heads were uncovered. They were sitting ducks out here in the middle of a dune. They needed to get out of here and now. Her speeder was a lost cause in this predicament. Forex could move quicker than even they could on a speeder.  
  
“I’ll provide cover fire, Sergeants! Get to the speeders!” She ordered. Both Aric and Elara only gave the barest signs of hesitation as they each looked over at her, she’d stood and took aim with her blaster rifle.  
  
“Forex, take position Bravo-One-Tango!”  
  
“Affirmative, Lieutenant! For the Republic!” The war droid answered with his typical booming war cry and took up position opposite her. They would fire on the two the groups as her sergeants made their escape.  
  
“Lieutenant, we can’t-”  
  
“No arguments! Move it!” Zandi shouted as she fired her rifle at the group of four hostiles. She didn’t turn at the sound of one of the speeders starting up or taking off, she only dodge behind the cover of her own broken speeder as she and Forex continued laying down fire. She managed to take out two with her blaster before they got too close.  
  
“Enemy reinforcements inbound from our Nine!” Forex called as he finished up with the three hostiles that had approached from behind. He pivoted, his canons blazing.  
  
With a brief glance to her left, she saw four more hostiles moving rapidly towards them. Her trusty vibroblade in hand, she focused her attention on the two men just meters from her. The Tatooine sunlight glinted on the wickedly curved blade before disappearing away from the intricately carved black handle. She usually wore it in an calf holster but something today had told her to carry it on her belt…Her instincts had proven themselves once again. She launched herself at the two men before her. At the last minute she threw herself into a combat roll, rolling on her right shoulder and passing between the two men and coming into a loose crouch. Kicking her left leg out, she sent one man to the ground and whirled her vibroblade in her right hand in an arc across the other man’s back. The electricity that danced over the blade left the smell of burnt fabric and flesh in the air. Shooting up to her feet, she shifted her grip on the blade’s handle and pushed forward, sending the blade into the man’s back, cracking through where she figured his spinal column was. He groaned and started convulsing as the blade’s electricity arced it’s way through his body then he fell forward into the sand.   
The other man had sprang up to his feet and managed to circle around her to attack from behind. She was about to whirl around and deliver a roundhouse kick to the man’s face when Aric Jorgan’s voice came over her ear piece.  
  
“Don’t move.” Was all he said, and she froze.  
  
A fraction of a second later, she heard a muffled thud behind as the man suddenly fell to the ground.  
  
“Good shot,” She murmured over the comm before moving toward the only working speeder and looking over to where she could still hear Forex giving a wallop to the other four hostiles.  
  
Two were down, two more were advancing. She spied movement a little further beyond…something shimmered in mid air. She frowned and tapped her cybernetics above her left eye. Her vision didn’t change save for the overlay of something akin to a Heads Up Display appeared. She didn’t bother with any thermal imaging as the heat of the desert sand would mask any life signs until it was too late to distinguish. Instead, it showed her a hazy figure, two of them exactly.  
  
_Stealth generators,_ she thought. _Clever, but not clever enough._  
  
She glanced at the speeder she was taking cover behind and rummaged through one of the satchels.  
  
“Aric, you made those advanced pyro-grenades, right?”   
  
“Yes, sir,” Jorgan answered. “Why-”  
  
“Forex, tactical retreat! Rendezvous at two-two-Anchor-Five!” She shouted as she found one of the grenades she’d been searching for. A smug smirk curved her lips as she hopped on the speeder and keyed it’s ignition.  
  
“Affirmative, Lieutenant!” Forex fired a last volley before complying to her orders. She waited for a moment as Forex made distance between them. She fingered the grenade’s activation switch. Her cybernetic display calculated the distance between her and her attackers.  
  
“Lieutenant! Get out of there!” Jorgan’s voice growled through the comm but she ignored him.  
  
“Anchorhead, Sergeant…Now.” She said calmly.  
  
“Yes, sir,” Aric’s voice answered.  
  
Just a little longer, she thought. The two without stealth generators advanced, followed closely by those stealthed.  
  
She flashed them a smug smirk and tossed the grenade before kicking the speeder into full acceleration while turning it at the same time. The sand kicked up by the speeder’s exhaust caused a brief wall as she made her get away. She heard a yelp of pain, no doubt an attacker had been burned by the exhaust as she’d allowed to get close.  
  
Three seconds later she heard the grenade go off and she kicked the speeder into gear.  
  
Take that you bastards, she thought as she sped towards Anchorhead to rendezvous with her team.  
  


A while later, she was stepping into the Anchorhead spaceport hangar where Havoc’s ship was berthed. Her team was checking Forex over as she approached.  
  
“Report,” She said.  
  
“Lieutenant, thank the stars you’re alive,” Elara said, breathing out in relief.   
  
A small huff of laughter escaped Zandi as she waved off her medic, “Yeah, I’m fine. Our attackers aren’t however.”  
  
“That was some quick thinking, LT,” Aric said to her as he finished up with Forex. “But a grenade is kind of wasted on just two attackers.”  
  
“There were four,” she said. He paused and looked at her just as Elara arched an eyebrow.  
  
“Pretty sure I only saw two through my scope,” Aric said.  
  
Zandi tapped her left temple, “Two were stealthed and carrying a few extra toys.”  
  
Aric gave an approving nod.  
  
“That’s brilliant, Lieutenant,” Elara said.  
  
“Just using what I got,” Zandi shrugged off the compliment. “How’s Forex?”  
  
“Oh he’s fine,” Aric said dryly. “Just cosmetic damage…but it would the ‘affect morale’ of the team if it wasn’t patched up.”  
  
Zandi chuckled, “Of course it would. Alright, do we have any idea who these people were? They weren’t Sand people.”  
  
“Indeed not, Lieutenant,” Elara spoke up, bringing out a datapad. “As per regulation-”  
  
“Skip the regs and just tell me what you found, Elara,” Zandi said. It would have been harsh, but she’d spoken with a calm and a smirk. She’d had a talk with Elara about not having to ‘quote’ every regulation known to man when she talked to her CO not to mention, the young woman needed to loosen up just a smidge. The sergeant was…working on it albeit it was slow going.  
  
“Um, yes, sir,” Elara said, faltering only for a moment before continuing on giving her report. “We managed to intercept a communique from one of the attackers.”  
  
Zandi arched an eyebrow, “That’s promising. What did the guy have to say?”  
  
“We aren’t sure who it was meant for as it was running on a low bandwidth and sent out with no recipient but…” Elara frowned as she handed the datapad to Zandi. “Well, see for yourself, sir.”  
  
Zandi took the datapad and tapped at the screen, bringing up the communique transcription. It was her turn to frown at what she read.  
  


_Target Acquired. Name: Zandomeda “Zandi” Kenobi._  
  
 _Mission Objective: Secure Target: In progress_  
  
 _Mission obstacles: Havoc Squad_  
  
 _Mission Resolution: Sabotage of Speeders, remote ambush, capture Target, Destroy target’s compatriots._  
  
 _Updating log for The Terentatek’s review._  
  
_Will update when target is in our custody._  
  


A series of lines with what looked like plain gibberish followed.  
  
“Who is the Terentatek?” Zandi asked.  
  
“Unknown as of yet, Sir,” Elara answered.  
  
Aric had finished with Forex and was wiping his hands on a rag. He shook his head. “I have no idea.”  
  
“A Terentatek is a dark side Sith beast…mutated from an ancient Sith Alchemy thing…” Zandi murmured as she thought. “Other than that, I have no idea what this means.”  
  
“It means someone is targeting you, Lieutenant,” Aric said pointedly. “And the only people I can think of that bold to go after you…are the Spec Force Traitors.”  
  
“Fair point…” She said, looking at Aric then at Elara. “I don’t know…these guys didn’t seem Imperial.”  
  
“Regardless, we should report this incident to General Garza,” Elara said. “She might know who or what the Terentatek is.”  
  
“Of course,” Zandi said. It was protocol after all. “I’ll wrap up the debrief with the Mayor, you two get Forex and our gear into the ship. I’ll be back in thirty.”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Elara said as Aric only nodded.  
  
As she turned to leave the hangar bay, Zandi couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else going one. Something that had nothing to do with the traitors she hunted.  
  
_The Terentatek…_ she thought. _Why does that sound so familiar?_


	9. Excerpt 9: Top Secret Breif

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus reads Theron into The Terentatek files and gives him a very important. One he's not exactly happy to be on...at the moment.

Theron stepped into the SIS Director’s office to see the man pacing back and forth behind his desk. He paused as Theron came to a stop then turned to look out the large window that led out to a small balcony behind the Director’s desk.  
  
“Have you heard of the Terentatek?” Marcus asked.  
  
Theron frowned and crossed his arms. It wasn’t like Marcus to start off with a question without getting to the point.  
  
“The Sith beast?” Theron said. “Other than that, no. Not until today.” He referred to the Top Secret files with the label of the _Terentatek_ that he didn’t have clearance for.  
  
“Not the Sith beast exactly, no,” Marcus said before he turned around, his eyes looking at a stack of data-pads on his desk. “This man and his organization are aptly named, however.”  
  
Theron didn’t speak and waited.  
  
Marcus gave a heavy sigh then gestured to one of the two leather seats in front of his desk. “I’m reading you into this. Have a seat.”  
  
“I’ll stand if you don’t mind,” Theron said, not making a move from where he stood.  
  
“Suit yourself,” Marcus said, sitting down himself. “This is of the utmost secrecy. What I tell you here doesn’t leave the two of us unless I say so. Clear?”  
  
“Got it,” Theron said with a frown.  
  
“The Terentatek referred to in these files,” Marcus said pointing to the stack of data-pads. “Is the name of a criminal and his large underworld organization.”  
  
“An empire bigger than Rogun the Butcher’s?” Theron asked with an arched eyebrow.  
  
“And they make Rogun look like a pansy,” Marcus nodded. “The leader, name Khades, is especially depraved. Insane, really.”  
  
“Why does it sound like the galactic underworld doesn’t even know they exist?”  
  
“Because to them, they don’t,” Marcus ran a hand over his face. “This isn’t a man who wants renown and glory and riches. According to the psych profile we’ve been able to scrape up. He’s the worst kind of criminal. Both insane and incredibly intelligent. Paranoid among other things. There’s no telling what he wants or even if he has a goal. At least not for us.”  
  
“I take it he’s well hidden,” Theron said, his mind turning over and running through all the different possible ideas of why the enemy slicer wanted those files in addition to Zandi’s own personnel file.  
Each idea was more ridiculous than the previous.  
  
Marcus gave a grim scoff, “The Sith Emperor is well hidden, this man is a ghost.”  
  
Theron’s eyes narrowed, “Could be an Imp spy if he’s that good.”  
  
Marcus shook his head, “Believe it or not, Theron. We thought that at first…until we found out about a few underworld massacres of Imperials…as well as Republic. Whoever this man is affiliated with, it’s not a government. They aren’t terrorists either. Though they are more deadly and worse than if they were terrorists.”  
  
“Just a group of paranoid insane people?” Theron said with a bit of annoyance. “Okay, so…why was this slicer going after those files? According to what I found…this batch of files as well as the Havoc squad files I flagged were the only ones downloaded.”  
  
“That’s where we have a situation,” Marcus said with another sigh, though this one sounded…sad. Theron frowned again. He didn’t like where this was heading.  
  
“You think Havoc Squad is being targeted,” Theron said. He had to fight to keep his composure. It was one thing to fight for the Republic, to do what he did to protect planets full of people who were faceless to him. It was completely different when the people were their own Special Forces…people with names and faces.  
  
Marcus shook his head, “Not exactly, no. I think their current CO is being targeted.”  
  
Theron stared at him as his composure cracked just a bit. He wasn’t uncertain where the strange tight feeling in his chest had come from and proceeded to shake his head in an attempt to ignore it.  
  
“You think Zandromeda is the target? Why? She’s the last person I would expect to be affiliated with any criminal organization,” Theron stated as if that would clear up everything. He had to pull back, momentarily wondering why he was rising up to her defense in such a way.  
  
“Calm down, Theron,” Marcus said, arching a dark eyebrow at him. “I know her file, her record speaks for itself. Not to mention, I know her as well. She’s being targeted…but I don’t think she’s being marked for assassination.”  
  
Theron took a deep breath and forced himself to focus.  
  
“We need more intelligence on this-”  
  
“Director, there’s an emergency alert transmission for you from General Garza.”  
  
Marcus frowned at the holo-com-inset on his desk. Theron’s brow wrinkled up in puzzlement.  
  
“Put her through, Talin,” Marcus said after a minute.  
  
“I’ll be outside,” Theron said and started to turn around.  
  
“Stay, the only reason she would contact me is if something of ours crossed something of hers.” Marcus ordered, sounding grim.  
  
Theron sighed and moved to lean back against the wall adjacent to the door. Crossing his arms, he watched as a small holo of an older gray haired woman standing at ease popped up on Marcus’s desk.  
  
“Marcus,” General Garza said curtly.  
  
“General,” Marcus said with a nod.  
  
“My people were just ambushed and I think the culprits are affiliated with something you know of.” The General was direct and to the point. She certainly sounded displeased and irritated.  
  
“Yes?” Marcus said.  
  
“I’ve sent forward a communique Havoc Squad intercepted after they were ambushed. It references The Terentatek. I remember that was something in your particular area.”  
  
Marcus frowned at her, “Yes…yes it is. I’ll look at it. Did you have any casualties?”  
  
Theron found himself holding his breath as he waited for to the hear the answer. He force himself to breath normally even as it felt like his chest was tightening around his lungs.  
  
“No casualties, thanks to Lieutenant Kenobi’s quick thinking,” Garza said with a shake of her head and just a touch of pride in her voice. “Now I trust that you will investigate this and alert me to anything me or my squad need to know. I don’t want this happening again.”  
  
Theron found he could suddenly breath easier.  
  
“You’ll be one of my first calls, General,” Marcus said with a nod.  
  
“That’ll have to do, Garza out.” The transmission ended and the holo image of Garza disappeared.  
  
“They’re already moving on their targets,” Marcus said, his voice trembled with anger slightly. He pinned Theron with a look. “This is going to get worse before it gets better if we don’t get a handle on it.”  
  
Theron nodded, “I’ll track-”  
  
“No, I want you tailing Lieutenant Kenobi,” Marcus ordered, his voice held a no-nonsense tone. He clearly wasn’t in the mood for argument. “Keep your distance, and make sure you’re not seen. Don’t interfere with her missions unless the Terentatek’s people show up. I don’t want to give these people any indication we’re getting on to them.”  
  
Theron frowned at him. Certainly his skills had a better use than babysitting a woman who could take care of herself. Unless, Marcus wanted him to gather intelligence in the field, which was better and more accurate than being hooked up to a terminal or database. Grudgingly, he understood the order…even if he wasn’t happy about it.  
  
“What’s the connection between Zandromeda and this Terentatek group?” Theron asked.  
  
“That’s what I want you to find out,” Marcus answered. “Get moving. I’ll find out were her last location was.”  
  
Theron nodded and turned to leave the officer when Marcus’s voice made him pause.  
  
“Remember, make sure you’re not seen. Zandromeda was good at sniffing out tails even when she was a trainee.”  
  
 _This is going to be…interesting_ , Theron thought in irritation as he gave a nod over his shoulder.


	10. Excerpt 10: From The Get-Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron lands on Alderaan to find his target. He realizes this mission would be rather difficult.

_(Six years and five months ago)_  
  
_“This planet is gorgeous,” Zandromeda said as she looked around. Her pale green eyes were looking up and past the boundaries of Castle Organa to the white tipped mountains beyond. For a moment, Theron was a bit involved with the view of her . The sunlight brought out small golden highlights in her long crimson red h air. He had a three-quarter view of her face…the sunlight made the pale green of her eyes sparkle even as it highlighted her cheek bones and chin. Her lips were drawn up in a smile, a genuine smile that came with its own inner light. For a moment, Theron forgot they were here for an SIS operation and wanted nothing more than to kiss that smile._  
  
_“If you keep looking around like that, you’re going to draw attention to us,” He said, inwardly grimacing at the harsh disapproval in his own voice. He’d become rather adept at being harsh with her on missions in an attempt to keep their personal relationship hidden. But sometimes…he wished it wasn’t necessary._  
  
_Her smile faded as her eyes moved away from Alderraan scenery and met his eyes. He felt a pang of disappointment and irritation at himself but pushed it aside. They were on a mission. One thin red eyebrow arched._  
  
_“What’s wrong with taking in the view?” She said with a bit of sass in her voice._  
  
_“Nothing, so long as it doesn’t make you look like a tourist,” He answered, deadpan. “Cause everyone stares at tourists.”_  
  
_She laughed, “Could just tell them you’re on a romantic vacation with your girlfriend.” She waggled her eyebrows then, prompting an amused smirk from him in-spite of himself._  
  
_“That could have its merits,” He said, giving her an appreciative once over. “Then again…I might have to fight off all the men who can’t seem to stop staring at you.”_  
  
_She rolled her eyes heavenward and waved him off, “Oh please. These other men clearly have better taste than you.”_  
  
_Theron chuckled and shook his head._  


(Present Day)  
  
Walking through the Alderaan spaceport, Theron couldn’t help the memory that had surfaced. It annoyed him somewhat, considering she’d been on his mind the last few days. It was one thing to be reminded of her every once in a while, to have a memory surface on occasion…it was a different thing when she kept popping up several times through out a single day. He forced himself to focus as he stepped out of the spaceport. He was here on a mission, not a trip down the memory sky-lane. He was given the latest intel on her whereabouts as well as her mission objectives and details. Marcus had managed to wrangle the particulars from General Garza…or simply used his security clearance for Theron’s benefit. Whatever the means, his mission was the same: gather intelligence on the men after Zandromeda as well as protect her and the rest of Havoc Squad without giving himself away.  
  
Easier said then done, he thought as he casually walked towards Castle Organa’s cantina and scanned the vicinity. It would be a walk in the park if it was anyone else he was sent to protect…but Zandi had been taught by him and Jonas…She was damn good at loosing tails and knowing when she was being followed or watched. He’d had tough targets like her before though so he would only have to adjust a few of his techniques. After all, he’d taught her quite a bit back when she’d been in SIS. What he had to be careful of really, were her own cybernetics but he had a few tricks with his own implants. A few of which she’d actually taught him. He frowned then as he meandered through the Market outside of the Castle’s cantina. The memory of her face whispered across his mind once more.  
  
Theron shook his head and pretended to browse the kiosks set up in the market as his cybernetics went through the files on his data-pad. He’d already skimmed over several of the files pertaining to the Havoc Squad traitors but he hadn’t read too deep into them. There could be a connection between them and the _Terentatek_ but he had a hunch there wasn’t. Even a defector like Tavus wasn’t going to throw in with an underworld organization…and from what he’d read in the files, the Terentatek held no love for Imperials. Still the timing was…strange. Zandi’s new Havoc Squad was hunting down traitors…and the _Terentatek_ was just now starting to go after her.  
  
The sound of a distant familiar laugh caught his attention. He carefully glanced over his shoulder in the direction it had come from.  
  
And nearly blew his cover then when he laid eyes on her for the first time in six and a half years.  
  
Her long red hair was now shoulder length and layered, perfectly but casually framing her face, making the green in her eyes seem to glow. She was dressed in full Havoc Squad armor which hid the curves he once knew from everyone and anyone’s view. A small bead of approval grew in the back of his mind but he continued to ignore it. Behind her were two individuals dressed in the same Havoc insignia bearing armor, a young blond woman who must have been Sergeant Elara Dorne and a tall angry looked Cathar who could be none other than Sergeant Aric Jorgan. The menacing looking war droid that followed was familiar to Theron as he’d read Jonas’s reports from his mission with Havoc Squad on Nar Shaddaa a few months before.  
  
She led the group, each one falling into step in a casual formation as they walked through the market. He realized they were going to cut right past him. At the last second he managed to dodge their view and slip behind the kiosk towards another. He waited for a handful of seconds, briefly wondering why his heart-rate had sped up before glancing back to see their retreating backs as they headed towards the Cantina.  
  
He gave a silent thanks to the stars that he’d remembered to forgo his usual red jacket for this particular mission. She would have spotted him from a light-year away. With a determined set to his jaw, he made his way to a somewhat secluded spot in the market where tables and benches were gathered. Several people meandered and enjoyed a brisk afternoon rest before continuing with their shopping. His vantage point on the cantina was clear…he just had to settle in and do what he did best.  
  
Now if only his mind would stop conjuring up memories of the Trooper he was protecting…He’d have a much easier time of it.


	11. Excerpt 11: From Nostalgia to Startling News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While trailing Zandi, Theron takes an involuntary trip down memory-lane...then later finds out something startling.

Blasted woman was better then he’d ever given her credit for. _Too good,_ he thought to himself as he leaned over slightly from the large heavy branch he was perched on. She hadn’t had the command of Havoc Squad for more than half a year…and here she was leading them into several skirmishes and incredibly tricky missions as if she’d been born to lead from the front. She’d been very adept at being an SIS agent…but what he saw as she moved across this particular battlefield outside one of Organa’s ward-posts…was that she was in her element.  
  
Just like she did in that last SIS mission, he thought as he watched her expertly weave her way through the enemies, taking them down one by one, her squad-mates moving and compensating perfectly as if they’d rehearsed a dance. Her blaster rifle fired, her shots on point nearly every time and…that same vibroblade flashing through the air.  
  
 _She kept it…_ he realized as he caught sight of the ornate black handle when she threw it decisively through the air.

  
_“What’s in the box?” Zandromeda asked as she leaned over his shoulder to peer at the black nondescript box on his lap. He’d been working at the terminal in his apartment when she’d arrived. Early, as always. Despite the fact that he actually liked it when she got so close, he still shrugged her away and put a disapproving frown on his face as he glanced at her._  
  
_“Nosy much?” he said and she backed up a step._  
  
_“Grumpy much?” she said as she scrunched her face up at him and stuck out her tongue._  
  
_“Only with you,” he retorted and turned back to his terminal, focusing on his task he was only minutes away from finishing._  
  
_“Well, shouldn’t have invited me over then,” She said, sounding a bit more annoyed with him then he’d expected. “I’ll come back when it’s more…’convenient’ for you.”_  
  
_He hit the last few keys and finished up the task only to turn around and see her walking towards the door. He frowned._  
  
_“Zandi…seriously?” He said. She paused before she reached the door and only gave him an arched eyebrow._  
  
_“You’re clearly busy,” She said curtly._  
  
_“Yeah, I was. I gave you a specific time for a reason,” he said. “I’m done now.”_  
  
_“Good for you, want a cookie?” she said and reached to key the door._  
  
_“Zandromeda,” he said, a sudden pang of annoyance flaring in his chest. “The box is for you.”_  
  
_She froze and sighed before she turned around._  
  
_“It’s a very lovely box,” She drawled sarcastically, giving him a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes which were still bright with irritation. “To be honest, I think black fits your decor better than mine.”_  
  
_Theron rolled his eyes at her, “Honestly, woman…” He stood up then, holding the box and gesturing with it before placing it on his coffee table. “It’s a gift, clearly. Open the box.”_  
  
_She had strange reaction then. Her irritation melted away to an expression of complete unease which made him pause and frown at her in concern. That wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. More sass and sarcasm sure but not her looking so…damn uncomfortable._  
  
_“What’s wrong?” He asked and his concern only grew when it looked like she flinched at the question. She shook her head and the smile that slid in place was a bit too bright._  
  
_“Nothings wrong,” she said, moving towards him. “You could have just said that instead of being an ass.”_  
  
_“I am not an ass,” he quipped but gave her a smirk. He was deciding whether or not he should comment on her strange moment of unease but when she sat down on his couch and grasped the box to open it, he decided against it. If there was one thing he’d learned in the span of being around her…if she didn’t want to discuss something…she wouldn’t and pushing her would only make matters worse as she would close up and completely shut down._  
  
_“You are an ass,” she said as she sat down on the couch and opened the box while he sat back down in the chair, watching her._  
  
_He noted the way her smiling but snarky facial expression faded to one of surprise. Her eyes darted to him quickly before focusing on the contents of the box. Her smile became genuine and sweet as she reached in and picked up the ornately carved black hilt of her vibroblade. The blade itself was hers. The hilt and the mechanisms that conducted electricity over the blade…was something new._  
  
_She chuckled then as she looked at it, turning it over in her hands, “I didn’t realize this is what you meant by ‘repair’.”_  
  
_Theron chuckled, “Well, it’s more than just a repair as it needed more than just a few tweaks.” She’d asked him to ‘fix’ her vibroblade after their last mission when it had broken. He’d known it was something she’d brought into the SIS with her as it wasn’t standard issue. When she’d handed it to him, he noticed then it wasn’t just a vibroblade but something she carried with her all the time. It was old and very well used but also taken care of. He was still unsure of its significance to her, the real reasons she even had it. But he wasn’t one to pry. He’d tried to fix it, to repair it but given it’s age, about fifteen years or so and the amount of use it had seen…it had been beyond repair. Only the blade had been worth salvaging. So he’d made some calls and had the majority of it replaced. The handle itself, however, was something he made himself. It was black, sleek with ornate swirls through the handle, save the grips. In small lettering on one side of the handle was her shortened name in Aurebesh. He’d toyed with the idea of putting his name somewhere…but dismissed it as quickly as it had popped into his mind. Whatever it is was that was between them…was better left unseen and in the dark._  
  
_His eyes were focused on the way her expression had turned so soft. She was beautiful whether she was angry or being sweet but this was…this was different. She was…more grateful for the gift then he’d expected…as if she’d never been given something like this before._  
  
_The next words out of her mouth proved that._  
  
_“So…” she said as her eyes met his again, “I’m not sure…how to thank you.” She’d said the words carefully but he caught the underlying tone of “what do you want in exchange’. He moved to the couch next to her._  
  
_“I think just watching you is enough for me,” he said, leaning in close and brushing his lips lightly against hers. “It’s a ‘gift’. No recompense, nothing at all.”_  
  
_She looked at him then, her eyes held a slight sheen and she tilted her head slightly to the left._  
  
_“You can be the sweetest, ya know,” She said leaning into him. “You have no idea what this means to me. Thank you.” Her lips landed on his sending a shiver through him._

  
He blinked the memory away and focused his attention on Havoc squad as they finished extracting two women in cloaks and started heading back out of enemy territory. He’d had no idea what that gift had truly meant to her…He still didn’t quite get it but he realized now that it was something very dear to her…She was still using it and he knew well she had other blades to use at her disposal. Republic issue and Spec Force issue. He felt a knot in his chest but ignored it. It didn’t really matter now…and as far as she knew…he was worlds away, probably forgotten from her mind.  
  
_Probably for the best,_ he thought and silently cursed himself. What was he doing, waxing nostalgic for? Their relationship…or whatever it was had been six and a half years ago…there was nothing to do about it now. They’d been seventeen and that was all there was to it. Teenage hormones and nothing more. Muttering a curse under his breath, he watched them retreat far enough to where he was able to slip out of the tree unnoticed and continued following them from a distance back to Organa Castle.

Later that evening, he’d spied her dismissing her team and heading into the Castle’s cantina. He was about to slip in and find a shadowed corner of the cantina when she’d walked back out with a drink in hand and found an outdoor table away from the other patrons. Keeping to the shadows around the Cantina, he managed to get closer but remained out of sight of her and the rest of the mingling cantina patrons. She looked…tired and not just physically after a day of fighting. He frowned as she pulled out her personal holo-communicator. A green skinned Mirialan woman with white hair appeared on the holo. She was older than Zandi…  
  
 _“Well hello there, honey,”_ the woman said then frowned. _“You look stressed. Is everything all right?”_  
  
A soft but tired huff of laughter sounded, “I wish I could talk about it, Mom.”  
  
The realization dawned on him then. He remembered her telling him about her parents six years ago. They weren’t human and they had adopted her. She hadn’t gone into details and he…hadn’t seen it as important at the time.  
  
“I’m okay though,” She said. “I was hoping to talk to Ezekiel.”  
  
The Mirialan smiled warmly, _“Of course, honey. We were just getting him ready for the babysitter.”_ Theron frowned, she’d never made mention of any siblings.  
  
“Oh that’s right, you and dad have that Senator’s gala tonight,” Zandi said. “You’re already late enough as it is, Mom. It’s okay.”  
  
 _“No, no, your father doesn’t really want to go anyway so he’s been stalling as much as he can,”_ The Mirialan said with a roll of her eyes. _“Ezekiel and I have been ready to go for the last hour. You have plenty of time to talk to him.”_ The woman disappeared for a moment.  
  
Then a small little human boy with dark red hair appeared on the holo.  
  
 _“Hi, Mommy!”_ the little boy said.  
  
“Hey there, Big Man,” Zandi said with a smile in her voice.  
  
Theron stared and he felt as if the ground suddenly became significantly less stable under his feet. She had a son?


	12. Excerpt 12: Awkward Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron has an awkward encounter...which leads to Zandi discovering him.

“Well now, aren’t you handsome?” Came a sultry and strange pitched voice from behind him. He frowned and glanced over his shoulder to see an Alderaanian noble woman looking at him with a rather hungry expression in her blood shot dark brown eyes. It wasn’t that he was never flattered when a woman came onto him…He was more amused than flattered at any given time. But this particular instance? He was annoyed that he hadn’t watched his six close enough to avoid being “spotted” while he continued tailing his target…And he was…rather repulsed at the clearly overly-intoxicated noble woman who was clearly married given the ring on her finger. She was dressed in Nobel Finery that…wasn’t all that flattering to the woman’s figure. Her graying hair was pulled back into rather complicated looking ornate braids that circled her head to end in a braided type of bun that was centered squarely on top of her head.  
  
He wasn’t a shallow kind of guy…but she wasn’t really attractive either. Not when there was a gorgeous red-head browsing a kiosk a few meters away. In fact, if it wasn’t for his current assignment, he would have just turned away and left the area regardless of the scene the noble would no doubt cause. As it was, he couldn’t really do that without drawing attention to himself…and blow his cover to Zandi. He suppressed an inward groan, he needed to think of something quick to quietly get the noble to leave while he silently chastised himself for being so obtuse to his surroundings.  
  
“Sorry, My…Lady,” he said quietly. “I don’t have time to…uh…chat at the moment. On business for my...Lord.” He had hoped that playing the role of a Noble’s ‘servant’ would be distasteful to the woman.  
  
The woman’s dark purple lips curved in what he figured was her version of a ‘seductive’ smile…To him, it looked like she wanted to eat him as if he was a buffet of exotic cuisine.  
  
“Oh my dear,” she said in a…strange sounding voice. Low, not quite sultry…He wasn’t sure what she was aiming for honestly as she stepped closer to him. She reached out and drew a finger down his chest. He was very thankful for the thick wool black turtle neck he wore…as well as the fact his jacket wasn’t on his person. His skin crawled as she drew close enough for him to smell the alcohol on her breath.  
  
“Your master will wait for you, surely,” She whispered. “You wouldn’t want me to give him a bad report do you?”  
  
He really couldn’t even think of a worse person then this woman at that moment. He frowned at her.  
  
“Sorry, Lady, Not a _‘servant’_ ,” he said, letting his irritation be heard through his voice. “Name’s Theorn Shanks. I’m also married.”  
  
Surprisingly enough, she wasn’t the least bit perturbed by what he said, in fact…he wagered a bet she hadn’t even heard him.  
  
“That’s nice, dear,” she said, stepping closer. “How about you buy a drink for a lonely Noble woman.”  
  
He swallowed past the bile he could feel rising in his throat and stepped back from her. She was too close and smelled too much of stale alcohol for him to bear standing any closer. Her gray brows drew down in a petulant frown.  
  
“I didn’t give you permission to leave,” she said in a low voice.  
  
“I didn’t ask,” he said, some of his sarcasm slipping into place. “Not interested and I don’t have enough credits in the world to satisfy your drinking problem.”  
  
Her brows shot upwards and her eyes widened, “How dare you!” Her voice rose a couple notches and he glanced around discretely. Some of the people around him looked up but Zandi wasn’t in his line of sight anymore. He had no idea whether she was close enough to hear or not.  
  
_Dammit_ , he thought in annoyance as he ran a hand through his hair.   
  
“Look, Lady,” he said, keeping his voice down. “You’re clearly married. I’m not interested in extra-marital affairs thanks. Just go back home to your husband.”  
  
Anger spread over the woman’s voice and the contorted expression of drunken rage almost made her look like some sort of soul devouring demon. Theron suddenly felt sorry for the poor soul who was this woman’s husband but the pity was replaced by his own anger when she threw the contents of her drink at his face.  
  
“You insolent little-” She yelled then threw the glass at him. His reflexes were fast enough, he ducked the flying object as she continued yelling at him. “Do you have any idea who I am?!”  
  
“A married noblewoman who is a bit overly-friendly when she’s drunk,” came a voice from behind him that made him simultaneously cringe and breath in relief. The sound of booted footsteps stopped beside him and her hand snaked around his, her fingers interlacing with his own. The sudden contact sent a lick of heat through him which almost made him jerk away but he quickly caught on to her intent as she was looking directly at the noblewoman with a challenging raise of her eyebrow.  
  
“I don’t like your tone,” the woman said, clearly too intoxicated to take in the fact that Zandromeda was still in her Havoc armor with a blaster rifle on her back.  
  
“That is most unfortunate,” Zandi deadpanned. “I don’t appreciate woman like you trying to force themselves on my husband…but you seem like a nice woman…I would hate to have to report this…sexual harassment to the Duke.”  
  
Theron had to give her credit. Even he wouldn’t have thought of that, but she’d always been a fast thinker.  
  
The noble woman’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates at the mention of the Duke, her voice became a small gasp of fear, “The..The Duke?”  
  
Zandi tilted her head, “Didn’t you know? Havoc Squad is here to help House Organa in this civil war.”  
  
That was when the woman finally seemed to notice just how dangerous Zandi looked. Her brown eyes lingered on the blaster rifle.  
  
“I…I am most sorry about this, Officer,” the noblewoman as she began to respectfully bow her head and back away.  
  
“I’m sure you are but,” Zandi said, with a tight-lipped smile on her face, “before you go. I think you owe _Theorn_ an apology, don’t you?”  
  
On one hand, he was rather smug about it, on the other, he just wanted this drunken woman gone. He was pretty certain that Zandi was dragging out this little encounter on purpose. She’d probably figured out already that’d he’d been tailing her.  
  
The noble woman couldn’t seem to meet his eyes she bowed her head respectfully to him.  
  
“My profuse apologies, sir.”  
  
“It’s uh…It’s alright, just go home,” he said. They watched the woman leave before they quickly dropped hands.  
  
“You’re losing your touch,” Zandi said, dropping his hand as she turned to him and crossed her arms. As he met her eyes and saw the expectant expression, he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.  
  
_Busted…_ He thought with a sigh.


	13. Excerpt 13: Hostage Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being busted, Theron is questioned yet dodges in answering and switches gears when Zandi is suddenly attacked.

She hadn’t seen him since she left the SIS, six and a half years ago. She’d thought of him very often since then…she’d written and called a few times in that first year…but he’d never responded or returned her calls. She’d left it at that. He’d wanted nothing to do with her is what she figured. She didn’t really blame him. Seeing him again, right in front of her…brought back those old feelings. She could do nothing but ignore them.  
  
“Theorn Shanks?” She said, wanting to distract herself from her thoughts. “ _Really_?”  
  
He looked sheepish and shrugged, “Uh…yeah…about that…It was the first thing I thought of.”  
  
She arched an eyebrow, “The first cover name you think of was from when I wrote your name drunk seven years ago?”  
  
“Uh…It was funny?” He said with another shrug.  
  
“Oookay,” she said with an eye roll, “How about you tell me what’s going on.”  
  
“Well, I was standing here…and that lady just started coming on to me…” Theron started. She couldn’t tell if he was trying to make a joke or just being an ass. Perhaps it was just both.  
  
She sighed, not at all amused at him, frowning, “No, I meant what’s with you tailing me through Alderaan.”  
  
“Oh…Oh that,” He said, shaking his head and glancing around. She noticed he had yet to meet her eyes. Repressing the sudden disappointed feeling that was beginning to seep into her chest she just adjusted her stance slightly. _Don’t start, he’s moved on,_ she silently ordered to herself.  
  
“You see, I can’t really talk about that,” He said lamely. She figured he would have come up with something else. Lie to her and tell her he was just gathering intelligence or he was on vacation, not actually confirm it even if he didn’t give her any information.  
  
“You really are losing your touch,” She said and waved her own question away. “I won’t pry. I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on.”  
  
“You do?” Theron said, the worry in his voice and eyes had her frowning.  
  
“Well, when members of an elite special forces squad defect, it’s only a matter time before SIS is doing an investigation,” She said narrowing her eyes at him. The way he finally met her eyes and she saw a brief moment of relief in his golden-hazel eyes wasn’t what she had expected at all.  
  
“That’s not why you’re following me around,” She said a statement but it was definitely meant as a question. She was about to ask another when she saw his eyes go wide and he took a step towards her, hands reaching out as if to grab her and pull her to him.  
  
At the same moment she felt the barrel of a blaster jab painfully into her right side between her armor plating as a hand wrapped tightly around her left elbow. She froze as her mind automatically took in the area around her. There were too many civilians still wandering around for to get into a fire fight. Not that having a blaster jabbed painfully into her waist was going to be just a flesh wound. A shot at that range would tear through her under-armor and probably kill her. She had to wait…wait until she had an opportunity.  
  
“Tell your spy-boy to get lost,” a rough guttural voice spoke in her ear as she was jerked backward into a hard large body. She didn’t dare turn to look at the man, he would only get pissed off and that wasn’t good.  
  
“Uh,” She said, her eyes meeting Theron’s. “You might…want to go.”  
  
If only she could reach her vibroblade…  
  
Theron didn’t move, a dark look passed over his face and remained.  
  
“Let her go,” he said in a menacing but low tone.   
  
“You leave…or she dies,” the man said.  
  
“No, she won’t,” Theron growled.  
  
“Okay, now isn’t the time to play the hero, Theron,” she started to say before the blaster was jabbed into her side again. She grimaced in pain.  
  
“Shut up,” the man said to her before returning his attention to Theron. “What makes you think I won’t kill her?”  
  
“Cause your boss wants her alive,” Theron answered. His voice was calm but the dark look on his face remained.  
  
“You don’t know who my employer is,” the man spat.  
  
“That’s what I wanted you to think.”  
  
“What I _wanted_ was for you to go with that nice noble lady but you didn’t.”  
  
“Not my type.”  
  
“Oh and I bet Red right here is. That why you been following her around?”  
  
“Let. Her. _Go_.”  
  
“You leave and I won’t start shooting up this market.”  
  
Despite the situation and how she was effectively a hostage…Zandromeda couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the exchange. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t the best at his job. Her right arm was free and so where her legs. So long as she acted and moved fast.  
  
“If kidnapping was your plan, you’re doing it wrong,” she said, sarcasm dripping from every word as she grabbed his hand, the one holding the blaster flush against her side. There was a chance this move wouldn’t work and she’d get the worst blaster shot of her life…but she wasn’t about to be taken anywhere like this. Not when she had traitors to hunt and a son waiting for her to come home.  
  
Determination flared up and she moved. Bringing her right leg up, she slammed it down on the man’s foot while twisting the man’s right wrist. She felt the barrel slide forward as he cursed in pain. She yanked her left arm forward, his grip slipped and she brought her left elbow back, slamming it into his diaphragm.  
  
The blaster went off and she felt white hot pain erupt across the skin of her stomach under her armor. The feeling of her skin being cauterized nearly blocked out everything around her. It was one thing to be shot and have the skin ruptured past the nerve endings…this was a whole other level of pain as her skin burned and blistered. It broke her concentration and focus. The man snarled a curse, sounding distant as he yanked her up.  
  
But Theron had moved. He was mere inches away from them now.  
  
“Toxicity _three_ ,” He growled through gritted teeth right next to her. She heard a sharp _shtick_. The man’s grip on her loosened and went away entirely before she was in a different set of arms. Grimacing at the pain of her stomach she looked back at the man that had taken her hostage. He was a behemoth of a man and dressed in dirty mercenary garments as he convulsed for a moment on the floor before going limp.  
  
“Are you okay?” Theron’s voice so close to her drew her eyes to his.  
  
“Um…pretty sure I need to get to a medic,” she said with a bit of sass in her voice. “I caught a blaster bolt…cauterized flesh…Feels great.”  
  
His face was drawn into alarm as she swayed on her feet. She felt light headed all of a sudden.  
  
What the hell did he shoot me with? She thought as she was scooped up in his arms. The sudden motion sent her head spinning and she groaned.  
  
“Stay with me, Zandi,” he said above her as he moved quickly, jostling her slightly.  
  
Strangely enough, she wasn’t worried. Never mind the wound on her midriff.  
  
She felt safe…  
  


Theron kicked opened the door to the infirmary of the medical suite in Castle Organa. The medical personnel all jumped at his entrance but he gave them credit when they all jumped to work when they saw the unconscious woman in his arms dressed in Havoc Squad regalia. Within minutes, he was gently laying her on a medical bed as nurses were bustling around and effectively nudging him out of the way. He stepped back trying to breath and swallow past the lump that had formed in his throat from when he saw her sway on her feet. She’d gone stark white instantly.  
  
Now he was standing in the middle of a medical bay watching the doctors and nurses cut open her armor to reveal a garish wound on her stomach. A read burned line crossed her stomach where it flared out towards her side. Blisters and burnt flesh riddled the trail the bolt had left. He cursed himself. He shouldn’t have let his guard down. He shouldn’t have let the fact that she had seen him impede his judgment. He shouldn’t have allowed himself to get distracted by her beautiful face and voice.  
  
His job was to protect her…  
  
_You did a very fine job of that,_ he thought to himself.  
  
“We got a poison in her system!”  
  
The sudden call out took his attention off of cursing at himself.  
  
 _Poison?_  
  
He pulled out his data-pad. He needed to get back to the scene and look the man over, take him and question him. He had to have had something on him that he was able to inject the poison into her.  
He was in close enough proximity to her for long enough for that to have happened.  
  
But he couldn’t leave her in here alone.  
  
He typed up a message, encrypted his frequency and sent it to her team.  
  
With a final look at her, he steeled himself and left the medical bay. He had already failed in protecting her once six years ago…again today.  
  
There was no way in the galaxy he was about to let that streak continue.


	14. Excerpt 14: In Need Of Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi wakes up in an infirmary....Has words with a snarky nurse. Theron is dealing with her attacker when she finally calls him to demand answers. Answers he cannot give her...yet.

Zandromeda awoke to the sound of her medic’s voice conversing with an unfamiliar voice.  
  
“You’re telling me that you have no idea who brought her in?” Elara was saying. Her imperial accent was taking on an annoyed edge as the nurse confirmed.  
  
“I’m just a nurse here, ma’am.”  
  
“What’s the problem here?” Aric’s voice joined in, sounding gruff.  
  
“Sergeant Jorgan, I am trying to find out what happened to our CO but no one here seems to know how she even came here,” Elara explained.  
  
Zandi kept her eyes closed as she analyzed the situation under the illusion she was still asleep. The smells and sounds of the area started coming to her. That overly clean smell of sterile instruments and kolto filled her nose. She didn’t feel the liquid around her and her squad’s voices weren’t muffled through water so she wasn’t in a Kolto tank. The hard mattress underneath was decidedly uncomfortable. A medical bed then. She was in a medical suite.  
  
“We got a message that she’d been brought here with severe burns on her abdomen from a blaster shot,” Elara said. Her voice was sounding strained as she tried to explain. “Her name is Zandromeda Kenobi, rank Lieutenant, Commanding Officer of Special Forces unit, Havoc Squad.”  
  
“Yes, yes, I got that,” the nurse said, sounding annoyed and tired. “I already told you what I know.”  
  
“Then explain where the doctor who treated her is,” Elara said.  
  
“I can’t do that.”  
  
“The hell you can’t,” Aric interrupted.  
  
“If you’re her squad, shouldn’t you know what happened to your own CO?” The nurse snapped. “Seems rather unprofessional to me.”  
  
“I’ll have you know-”  
  
“Enough,” Zandromeda said as she opened her eyes and slowly pushed herself into a sitting position on the medical bed. The skin on her stomach no longer burned with the intensity of a thousand suns, instead…it was annoyingly itchy and sore.  
  
“Lieutenant,” Elara said in relief and started towards her. The nurse sidestepped her and put herself in between Zandi and her sergeants.  
  
“I’m sorry but I cannot let you get any closer.” The nurse said.  
  
“Excuse me?” Elara said in confusion.  
  
“I cannot allow you to go near her.”  
  
“Kriff that,” Aric said, sidestepping the woman and passing her. It was then Zandi realized why the nurse was giving Elara such a hard time as the woman made no moved to stop Aric from passing her but kept sidestepping to block Elara. Anger rose up in her chest, slowly spreading through her veins. Imperial accent or not, no one was going to treat one of her officers that way. Aric seemed to catch on as well when he stopped at Zandi’s bedside. He turned, his eyes blazing.  
  
“She is a Sergeant of the Republic Military and a damn good medic.”  
  
“She’s an Imperial,” the Nurse spat, not looking away from Elara. Zandi saw the hurt briefly pass over Elara’s face before it was masked by restrained frustration and that only cause her anger at the nurse to rise.  
  
“She’s a _Republic Citizen_ ,” Zandi said as she swung her legs off the side of the bed. “Nurse…go get me your supervisor.”  
  
“Excuse me, Lieutenant?”  
  
“Your supervisor. _Now._ ”  
  
“I will not-”  
  
“You will cause if I have to go find him or her…You will not be happy,” Zandromeda ordered. “I will not have you disrespecting one of my officers.”  
  
“I beg your pardon but this woman is clearly a spy-”  
  
“Are you _kriffing kidding me_? She is a Republic Citizen and a Havoc Squad Sergeant,” Zandi growled, leveling a glare at the nurse. “Whose helped every Republic effort here on Alderaan with her efficient medic and combat skills. Now, I’m cranky, itchy and annoyed so I suggest you check your attitude or I will check it for you.”  
  
“I will loose my-”  
  
“Job?” Zandi said, her voice turning sarcastic and scathing. “For unprofessional conduct and disrespecting an Officer of the Republic Military? Oh _yeah_ , you’re gonna loose your job.”  
  
The nurse’s face went as white as the planet Hoth.  
  
“Go get your supervisor,” Zandi ordered in a calm voice. The nurse swallowed and after a brief nod, walked away. Elara watched her go before approaching Zandi’s bedside.  
  
“Sir, I…I’m sorry you had see that,” Elara said, not meeting Zandi’s eyes.   
  
“I’m not,” Zandi said, “I don’t care where you’re from Elara. You could’ve been a Sith, some crazy mad scientist, a damned separatist for all I care. You are a member of my squad and if someone has a problem with that, they will deal with me.”  
  
“I…” Elara started, her eyes had widened. “Thank you, Sir. That means…a lot to me.”  
  
“Don’t mention it,” Zandi said then gestured to her squad-mates. “How about we get out of here and back to the ship? I can answer your questions and tell you what happened.”  
  
“Some explanation would be nice,” Aric grunted as he helped his CO to her feet. “We got a strange encrypted message telling us you were here. Can’t find the sender.”  
  
“That’s because it was an SIS agent,” she said, lowering her voice to keep any wandering ears from hearing. “And he owes me some answers too.”  
  


He was so focused on his task, he almost missed the ringing of his holo-communicator. He growled in annoyance and without checking the incoming frequency, flicked the thing on. No doubt Marcus got word of the attack and had some words to say to him about it. With the information he just received by his ‘prisoner’, he hoped that would appease the Director.  
  
Only it wasn’t the SIS Director. He resisted the urge to run a hand over his face when he saw the small holo figure of Zandromeda standing with her arms crossed, leaning slightly to the left. He remembered that pose and that expression. Perfect passivity offset by an annoyed hip thrust slightly out, arms crossed as if she was keeping herself from getting physical with his own holo-form. She’d used it a bit too often in their last month together.  
  
 _“Surprised you have the same frequency,”_ she drawled. Her tone was sarcastic but not yet scathing. _“Have to admit, I’m pretty surprised you answered.”_  
  
“I…” he sighed. “I didn’t know it was you.”  
  
 _“Ahh,”_ She said, her head tipping to the left. _“Didn’t check the frequency. Figures. Anyway, how about you tell me what the void is going on?”_  
  
“I already told you-”  
  
 _“Yeah, yeah, you can’t talk about it,”_ She said, her tone growing icy. _“You’ve used that excuse so many damn times, it’s not flying now.”_  
  
“Look, I’m sorry-”  
  
 _“Don’t,_ ” she snapped as she sliced the air with her hand. _“Don’t go there. I have a right to know what the kriff is going on. I’ve been ambushed twice. You are following me around…You knew something about my last attacker’s employer. I’m not stupid, Theron. I know when something is going down.”_  
  
She was right of course. She had every right to know that a shadowy and deadly underworld organization was after her. She had every right to know the reason why, even if he didn’t have that particular bit of information yet. But telling her could tipoff the _Terentatek_ in any number of ways…He couldn’t tell her…not when it would only put her in further danger.  
  
Maybe there was a way…maybe she could help him figure out who and why this _Terentatek_ group was after her…  
  
 _“Look, Theron,”_ She said with a tired sigh as if she was feeling defeated about the conversation. _“You probably don’t know this, but I have a son. He’s with my parents…and if someone is after me I need to make sure he is safe._ ”  
  
Her son…  
  
Something suddenly clicked in his mind. Of course…how could I be so stupid, he thought to himself with an audible growl. The portion of her file, her next of kin…  
  
Her son would be on that particular portion. And if the _Terentatek_ had that information…they could very well use that little boy as bait to get to her.   
  
“Alright,” Theron said, “I can’t tell you…right now. Let me get a hold of Director Trant…He knows more than I do. I promise you’ll get the answers you need…and you’ll be able to protect your son.”  
  
 _“I…_ ” She started then paused for a moment as if she was studying his holo image. _“Okay. I can live with that. I’ll wait for his call.”  
_  
“That’s the best I can do right now-” He started.  
  
 _“It’s okay, Theron,”_ She said, her voice calm and warm. _“It’s better than I hoped and better than most. Take care of yourself.”_  
  
Her image winked out of existence and he gave a heavy sigh as he dialed Marcus’s frequency.  
  
He hoped to the Force that it wasn’t too late.


	15. Excerpt 15: High Profile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning from a Senator's Political Gala turns into a high profile attack on Zandromeda's adoptive parents. Only quick thinking get the couple out of harms way.

Careenya stepped through the front of her and her husband’s apartment, tapping the keypad as the lights inside lit up softly. The little gala she and her husband had attended for appearance and political reasons had gone on longer than either of them had expected. Zenith kept getting pulled aside by various public figures for various if mostly mundane reasons. She’d watched as his face became progressively annoyed throughout the evening until she couldn’t bear it anymore and pulled him away from a group of corporate executives who were trying to lobby for his favor. He’d kissed her thoroughly outside the gala in thanks before they had headed home for the night.  
  
Placing her purse and holo-communicator on the black and brown decorated table in their apartment’s foyer, she paused when the lights in the room flickered. Frowning, she looked up. They’d only just replaced that particular overhanging light just a month ago. There was no reason for it to be flickering.  
  
“If you stare at that long enough, you’ll ruin your vision,” Zenith whispered in her ear as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He nuzzled her neck.  
  
“Well, it was flickering just a moment ago and we just replaced it,” She said trying to resist the way his lips felt on the skin of her nape.  
  
“Let it flicker,” he whispered. “We won’t be in this room much longer anyway.”  
  
She laughed then, “Nice try, we have to go pick up Ezekiel from-”  
  
A loud crash of glass breaking echoed from the upstairs floor causing them both to look up. Zenith’s arms fell away from her as he started towards the hallway to make his way to the stairs.  
  
“If that damn vorn tiger of Zandi’s is breaking things again…” He muttered as he moved.  
  
Careenya shook her head and started to follow him, “If someone didn’t continue to spoil his daughter every time she brought a stray pet home-” her voice trailed off as she came to a stop. Zenith continued and started making his way up the stairs.  
  
Something wasn’t right.   
  
She stretched out with the Force, searching the rooms of the apartment. A loud angry growling could be heard from upstairs.  
  
“Growlie, cut it out!” Zenith’s voice could be heard.  
  
Then she felt an unfamiliar presence, centered right above her. It was shrouded in the dark side of the Force, like a cloak was draped around it, shielding it’s true intentions and thoughts from her.  
  
Her eyes widened and she rushed up the stairs.  
  
“Zenith!” she called out just as she heard a heavy thud. She could feel Zenith’s pain flare briefly in the Force.  
  
The growling intensified and became an outright snarl.  
  
She made it to the top of the stairs and burst through the door just in time to see the large full-grown vorn tiger fly across the room before it hit the ground, rolled and came back to his feet.   
  
“Careenya, no!” Zenith’s shout caught her attention at the last minute but her perception in the Force was already working. She felt the movement from her left, felt the intruder’s intention to cleave her in two. The air rushing past an charged vibro-sword teased her hair as she crouched and rolled forward. Shooting back up to her feet she whirled around, her skirts flaring out. The Togruta man she face held the same presence she’d felt just moments ago. He was dressed in torn black and grey garments. He bore no unique patches or insignias, nothing that could possibly give her an idea as to who he was. But his eyes…  
  
Dead, cold and nearly completely black.  
  
She felt it then, as he swung towards her and hefted his blade for another attack.  
  
His mind was not his own.  
  
She threw her hand out, using the Force she sent him flying backwards into the stair well where he continued to tumble down the stairs. Without a second look, she turned and rushed towards where her husband was struggling to push a large bookcase off of himself. With a flick of her wrist, she lifted the heavy bookcase with the Force and moved it away from Zenith before letting it go to fall to the floor a few feet away as she went to her knees beside him. The heavy steps of Growlie’s foot pads as he came up to them could be heard.  
  
He rolled to his side and pushed himself up to one knee with a pained groan.  
  
“We need to get out of here,” Zenith told her, his no non-sense tone leaving no room for argument.  
  
“We need to get _him_ out of here,” She argued anyway as they got to their feet.  
  
“Careenya-”  
  
“No, this man isn’t your run of the mil thug who picked the wrong house to rob,” she said.  
  
“I don’t care who he is,” Zenith said, his voice taking on an edge. “He was about to cleave you in two.”  
  
He stopped then and they glanced at Growlie, who was prowling back and forth in front of them. Hackles raised, a low growl emanating as his dark eyes were trained on the stair way. They heard footsteps on the stairs, more than one set.  
  
A strange clicking sound reached her ears and at the last second, she flung both hands up as a rocket launcher went off. The missile impacting on a her force shield. The impact shook the shield as it shimmered with a golden light around her, Zenith and Growlie. She felt the explosion of the rocket missile and would have been sent to her knees at the Force of it had it not been for her husband’s hands on her, keeping her upright. Smoke filled the room blocking her view of the intruders.  
  
“Growlie, come!” Zenith ordered.  
  
She was suddenly scooped up into Zenith’s arms as he made a dash under the cover of the smoke. She kept the shield in place around them until he’d set her down and sealed their bedroom door after Growlie.  
  
“We’re trapped up here,” She said quietly as she fought a wave of fatigue.  
  
“That was their plan, I wager,” Zenith said, “But we’re not exactly trapped.”   
  
The entire apartment shook violently, making her loose her footing. Zenith caught her before she would have tumbled to the floor.  
  
“There’s a little tunnel that leads out of this room,” Zenith told her in a whisper.  
  
She stared at him for a moment, “What?”  
  
“Call me paranoid, but back when we got this place…I had it installed,” he said, his eyes met hers.  
  
“And you didn’t tell me for the last seventeen years because?”  
  
Three explosions went off from other parts of the apartment, shaking the building again. Growlie prowled back and forth in front of the sealed door and snarled when the explosions had sounded.  
  
“I figured you’d be mad,” he said, looking back at the door. “But it’s not in the blueprints, I doubt these guys even know.”  
  
“Then we need to get out of here,” She said then started looking around the room. “We need to get out of here and get Ezekiel.”  
  
“Exactly what I was thinking,” He said and took her hand before pulling her towards a wall covered in a large tapestry. “It will only be a matter of time before they figure out where he is.” He pushed back the tapestry and a small keypad looking inset was shown. He placed his right thumb over it. For a moment nothing happened, then the wall moved…  
  
“Its keyed to our family’s fingerprints, even if these guys find it,” Zenith was whispering as another explosion rocked the apartment. “They will have no hope to use it.”  
  
The ‘wall’ door slid open into a dark stair well and Zenith gestured for her to enter.  
  
“I’ll be right behind you, Carrie,” He whispered, his voice right behind her, at her ear. It was a loving and beyond serious promise. One that left a tremor through her as the nickname “Carrie” was only used when things were dire. It hadn’t been uttered in years.  
  
She stepped forward and moved a few steps down. Turning she saw his silhouette highlighted by the flickering light of their bedroom. He turned and uttered a single word into the room. A moment later, their daughter’s vorn tiger entered the tunnel. He sidled up next to Careenya, a comforting and protective presence. She placed a hand on his head. The wall door slid shut, and her vision went pitch-black. She took a moment to let her eyes adjust but she didn’t have night vision so she was only able to discern movement in the dark. Zenith’s hand found hers and squeezed gently before she felt his lips brush her cheek. The slightest most imperceptible tremble told her he was more than relieved she was in one piece but he was still worried, still on high alert. He slowly began guiding her down the stairs.  
  
They were silent as they made their way through this ‘escape’ tunnel. It stretched down wards for a ridiculous amount of time. She wondered just how far down it went, as they were surely several levels below their apartment by now.  
  
When they finally reached the end and another door slid open to reveal they were on the lower levels of Coruscant, she had to take several moments to readjust to the sudden amount of light. He never let go of her, his hand in hers, he only pulled her tightly against him.  
  
“We’re not in the safest part of Coruscant,” he whispered at her ear.  
  
“Clearly,” she whispered back. The nearby emotions of the people around them stemmed from violent or greedy thoughts.  
  
“I’m pretty confident Zandi’s pet will keep most of them at bay just by being here,” He murmured.   
  
Zenith started forward, and they cautiously made their way to a rundown taxi area. Broken down speeders littered the area. She gave him a questioning look but he only shook his head, his lekku brushing against her arm.  
  
He let go of her hand and cautiously approached a deceptively broken four person speeder, with a few minutes of reconnecting a series of wires, he had it up and running as if it was brand new.   
  
“My Lady,” he said quietly, gesturing for her to take a seat. She approached, giving him a dubious arch of a delicate white eyebrow.  
  
He only gave her a confident smile before helping her into her seat. Growlie wasn’t exactly enthused about getting into the speeder and Careenya could have sworn that the vorn tiger was side-eyeing Zenith with a suspicious look but nevertheless, he jumped up into the back seat and attempted to settle. Zenith took the driver’s seat and they lifted off effortlessly.  
  
She wondered who their attackers were and why they had attacked in the first place. They both had made enough enemies through the years that it could have been orchestrated by any number of people. With Zenith being in politics and a Senator from Balmorra to the Republic…there was a whole new set of enemies. They’d had a couple of attempts on their lives just because of her husband’s political job and stances.  
  
It was the first time she’d felt such menacing Dark Side influence on any of their attackers however…and that bothered her to no end. This was something else…and she couldn’t figure out what it was.  
  
First things first however, they needed to make sure their grandson was safe.  
  
She could only hope that their daughter was just as safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Careenya Kenobi is a Jedi Consular and clearly married Zenith XD (Careenya is modeled after my Annyala Rand also a JC)


	16. Excerpt 16: Witness Protection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron is tasked with getting Zandi's parents into Witness Protection...while the rest of the galaxy is led to believe they perished in the attack. Even Zandi.

The SIS Director answered his holo-call extremely fast, making Theron frown in concern. That rarely happened, and only when Marcus was about to call him in the first place.  
  
“Theron,” Marcus’s voice sounded. “Interesting timing, we have a problem.”  
  
He didn’t like the way the Director’s voice sounded, something had just happened. Something serious. He must have already heard about the attack on Zandi. He braced himself for the incoming rebukes but they never came.  
  
“Zandomeda’s parents were attacked,” Marcus said, sending shock through Theron as well as the accompanying cold feeling of dread that rose up in his chest. Her son was with her mother in that holo call yesterday…  
  
“I need you back here, ASAP,” Marcus ordered. “I’m placing another agent on her temporarily.”  
  
He frowned as the connection went dead. If he was honest with himself, he wasn’t particularly keen on another agent tailing Zandi but there was no real reason for that. No reason that mattered or was relevant anymore.  
  
With a sigh he shook his head and glanced over at the man who had attacked Zandi just hours ago. His expression hardened when his eyes landed on the man’s bruised but smug face. He had him tied up to a chair…and he was looking a little worse for wear but that smug grin got under Theron’s skin.  
  
“Looks like you’re too late, buddy,” The man said with a chuckle. “The plans are already in motion and there is nothing you can do to stop them.”  
  
Theron’s blood boiled and he stepped up to the man and leaned close, his fist clenching at his side.  
  
“How about you tell me what your ‘master’ is up to then? Tell me what it is I can’t stop?”  
  
“Go tell your stunning Red-head goodbye,” The man sneered. “She’s not going to be in prime condition for long. You might wanna get yours while you still-”  
  
Theron’s fist impacted the man’s jaw with enough force that a loud crack resounded through the room. The man’s eyes went wide for a moment before he slumped in the chair unconscious. Theron stepped away, breathing heavily. He looked at his the man’s now broken jaw and felt a small amount of satisfaction.  
  
“That’s the least you deserve, bastard.”  
  


It was early the next morning when Theron had landed on Coruscant. It was three hours after that he was walking out of the SIS Director’s office with his next and probably most difficult assignment yet.  
It was his mission and his alone to get Zandi’s parents into hiding. The SIS had worked fast to get spread the rumors and ‘news’ leaks that the Senator and his wife perished in the attack. It was already circulating through the major news outlets as he made his way to a specific floor of the building. The SIS agent that Marcus had put on the Senator’s house had managed to find them after the attack using a scanner to search for the couple’s life signs. It was, by all accounts, a very close call. The apartment was nothing but rubble. Had it not been for a secret tunnel, the only thing not destroyed, they would have been killed. After a tense moment with the couple’s vorn tiger protectively remaining between the SIS agents and the couple, they were able to secure the Senator and his wife in the SIS headquarters while Marcus set certain things in motion, and Theron got briefed on the situation.  
  
He paused at the door that led to the room where Zandi’s parents were sequestered, treated for wounds and looked after. He took a deep breath. This wasn’t going to be easy, especially because he knew that to place them into hiding. Zandi herself, and even her son, would have to believe they’d been killed in the attack. Steeling himself and his resolve, he keyed the door and it slid open.  
  
And came face to face with a growling full grown Vorn Tiger. Theron nearly jumped back out of the door at the sight of the creature’s menacing snarl pulling back it’s upper lip and revealing very sharp and pointy teeth. The vorn tiger didn’t lung at him as he initially expected, it just remained between him and it’s owners behind it; A very angry Twi’Lek and a worried Mirialan discussing something among themselves in hushed tones.  
  
“We need to be patient, Zenith,” Careenya Kenobi was saying in a calm voice.  
  
“Patient? We’ve been patient for almost twenty-four hours now,” Zenith said, his low quiet voice sending a chill into the room. Careenya had looked up at the sound of the door then spoke something very calmly to the vorn tiger. Theron wasn’t entirely sure but he could have sworn she’d called it ‘Growlie’. The Vorn Tiger took a moment to look at him, its dark eyes seemed to narrow and he sniffed the air but the snarling was gone. Theron breathed easier when it turned away and prowled over to Careenya’s side where it sat looking regal but keeping it’s eyes on Theron.  
  
“Senator Zenith, Master Kenobi,” Theron said after clearing his throat. The formidable looking Senator whirled around. He looked every bit ready to take on battalions as if he wasn’t thirty years Theron’s senior. From what Theron knew of the Balmorran Resistance Fighter turned Politician, he was willing to wager, thirty or even fifty years wouldn’t stop him.   
  
No doubt, that’s the reason he and his wife are still alive, Theron thought as he moved cautiously to the middle of the room, keeping the vorn tiger in his peripheral.   
  
“Perhaps you can tell us what the _kriff_ is going on?” Zenith said, a bit of sarcasm seeping into his voice as he stood between Theron and the Mirialan.  
  
“Agent Theron Shan, I know this is all very strange,” Theron began as he felt it was prudent to get the reason any of them were even in that room out from the get-go. “But both of you are going into hiding, effective immediately.”  
  
“What do you mean ‘hiding’?” Careenya demanded as she came up to stand beside her husband. Her green eyes reminded him of Zandi’s and he had to resist the urge to look away while ignoring the slow tightening in his chest.  
  
“There’s more to the attack on you and your husband then you realize, Master Kenobi,” Theron said in as calm a voice as he could muster. He’d barely walked into the room and he felt they were already behind schedule. But they were the people who raised Zandi, adoptive or not, he could tell they would need a bit more information before even thinking of agreeing to go anywhere with him.  
  
“Clearly and yet no one is telling us what that is,” Zenith demanded, glaring at Theron. “What’s going on?”  
  
“You need to go into hiding, Senator,” Theron said. “You and your wife.”  
  
“What about our daughter and grandson?” Zenith asked, his worry over family was clearly evident in his violet eyes. “If someone is after us, they could very well use them to-”  
  
“No,” Theron said with a slight shake of his head, “These people aren’t after you.” He looked at them both. He knew their backgrounds and he knew Zandromeda. He didn’t need to think very hard to know what they meant to her. The news of their ‘deaths’ was going to devastate her. “They are after Zandromeda. The attack on you was meant to get her attention. The galaxy believes you’re both dead…and so will Zandi. That means so will the people who are after her.”  
  
“What?” Careenya said, looking alarmed and gripping her husband’s arm. She’d been a Jedi once…but this wasn’t the reaction of the best diplomat the Jedi had ever had…this was a mother and grandmother worried for her child and grandchild. “You mean, Zandi can’t even know we’re alive?”  
  
“That’s correct…but only until these people are brought down,” Theron said, his voice softening as he hastened to assure them it wasn’t a permanent arrangement.  
  
“Who are these people?” Zenith demanded.  
  
“I can’t tell you that,” Theron said.  
  
“The hell you can’t,” Zenith growled as he took a step towards him. “You tell me my daughter is in danger but it’s my wife and I that have to go into hiding…and you won’t tell me who the bastards are that are responsible?”  
  
“That’s right,” Theron said, meeting Zenith’s glare with one of his own. “Because if I do and these people somehow get tipped off? She’s dead.”  
  
“Zenith…” Careenya's voice was calm but held a thread of worry and sadness. “He’s right.”  
  
“Don’t…” Zenith started then inhaled and turned away from Theron. “If anything…and I mean _anything_ happens to my daughter or my grandson…I will kill every single one of those bastards myself.” He threw another glare back at Theron, “And I don’t give a _damn_ what the Republic itself has to say about it. We clear?”  
  
Theron nodded, “Believe it or not, Senator,…I’d do the same thing.”  
  
“Words are nice,” Zenith started with a scathing tone.  
  
“Enough…” Careenya said, drawing their attention from their own tension to her. She glared at her husband for a moment before she stepped between them and looked up at Theron. He met her studying gaze. She frowned at him for a moment then tilted her head.  
  
“You know my daughter,” she said, it wasn’t a question.  
  
“I do,” he said.   
  
“You trained her,” she said…again there was no question.  
  
“I did, yes,” Theron answered, frowning at her.  
  
“I can sense your feelings, Agent Shan,” she said, “And I don’t need promises…I only ask one thing.”  
  
He waited.  
  
“You need to move our grandson-” Careenya said. “If something happens to him…Zandi will…” Her voice trailed off unable to finish the sentence.  
  
“Ma’am, the boy is safe,” Theron said with the most serious tone he felt. “I will be taking him to Zandromeda personally as soon as you two are hidden.”  
  
She studied him again for a long moment before nodding and turning away and giving her attention to her husband. Theron watched as the former Jedi Master approached the man she loved and placed her arms around his torso. The Senator’s arms automatically found their place around her. Something passed between as they looked at each other. Theron felt a strange pang in his chest and he resisted the urge to rub his sternum as Senator Zenith looked up and met his eyes.  
  
“We’ll go with you,” he said, his tone gruff. “But you need to promise me, you’ll keep our daughter and grandson safe. No matter the cost.”  
  
There wasn’t a single ounce of hesitation in Theron’s voice when he answered.  
  
 _“I will.”_


	17. Excerpt 17: Devastated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi receives the news of her parents' Deaths. Theron brings her son to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, this is full of nothing but the Angst.

Havoc Squad stood at ease in General Garza’s office as she proceeded to give Zandromeda a promotion to Captain for her bravery and dedication in bringing down all of the Havoc Squad traitors. This was followed by having an executive officer instated in Havoc Squad. It was a difficult decision but Zandi gave the rank of Lieutenant and the XO position to Aric Jorgan, as the Cathar held several years more command experience than Sergeant Dorne.   
  
It was then, Zandi noticed the change in the General’s demeanor.  
  
“I am afraid to say that your promotion is going to seem bittersweet in light of the news I have for you, Captain,” Garza said, her eyes turning sad. “Lieutenant Jorgan, Sergeant Dorne, if you will give me and the Captain a few minutes.”  
  
“Captain, General” the two echoed as they left, the concern for their captain was missed as Zandi didn’t turn around. She kept her eyes on Garza a cold feeling of dread pooling into her stomach. Garza waited a moment until Elara and Aric were out of earshot before she turned and made a beckoning motion with her hand.  
  
“Follow me, Captain,” she said. “What you’re about to hear is going to be…very difficult.”  
  
That sense of dread grew heavier as she followed the General out of the office and down one of the expansive halls of the Coruscant Senate Tower. Something was wrong, very wrong. Her mind drifted to her parents and her son…and try as she might she couldn’t get the feeling to go away. She could only keep the mask in place as she walked unable to give voice to her questions.  
  
Garza came to a stop in front of a closed door and turned to her.  
  
“The man inside that room is an SIS agent and he has the full details on what has happened,” Garza said, her voice quiet and sad. “He also requested to give you the news himself. I believe you’re acquainted.”  
  
Zandi could only nod, keeping the frown and confusion from her face. She turned and entered the room.  
  
Her eyes landed on a familiar red and black jacket with white markings crouched down towards the back of the room. His back was to her and his attention was focused on something else. The pool of dread in her stomach became a lump. If he was here then this meant…  
  
“Theron?” She said, her voice remained calm even as fear slowly reached up to start choking her.  
  
He turned his head and stood up.  
  
“Zandi,” he said turning to face her. His face was tired and sad…almost like Garza’s…  
  
“General Garza said you had something you needed to tell me,” she asked, her tone sounded strangely flat.  
  
He looked away from her, “You might want to sit down.”  
  
“Just tell me.”  
  
“There’s been an attack,” he said meeting her eyes.  
  
“On who?” She held in a breath  
  
“Your parents,” he told her and she searched his eyes, seeing the truth behind the sadness. She felt as if she’d been stabbed, the wind knocked out of her. Memories of her parents flashed through her mind…before her brain leapt forward.  
  
“My son?” she asked, her voice cracking with emotion.  
  
 _Please no,_ she thought desperately.  
  
“He’s safe,” Theron answered, his voice soft. He then moved to the side and guided her attention to a large couch in the back of the room. On it was Growlie, her vorn tiger she’d had for years. His head lifted and his tail gently moved when he saw her. He didn’t leap up or come running towards her. He had one large paw wrapped gently around the young boy sleeping next to him. It was the most adorable thing she’d ever seen and she felt lightheaded when she finally breathed in relief, seeing her son’s chest rise and fall in his sleep. She brought a hand up to her face and took in a deep breath before she walked quietly towards the couch.  
  
“My parents? Are they…” she couldn’t finish the question.  
  
“I’m sorry, Zandi,” Theron said, giving her the answer. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest, she felt like she couldn’t breathe and she sank to her knees as the emotions of the news he’d just confirmed hit her. Her parents, the two of the most important people in her life were gone. They’d been heroes of the Republic…but they’d been her own personal heroes. They’d rescued her from a bad life, loved her as their own and taught her everything she knew about being the only kind of hero that truly mattered: a loving nurturing parent.  
  
Tears welded up in her eyes and she couldn’t hold them back any longer as she looked at her sleeping son.  
  
A gentle hand settled on her shoulder.  
  


He’d never seen someone look so broken before, not like this. Silent tears streaming down her face in between the most quiet of sobs. Guilt rushed through him. He hadn’t actually said her parents were dead, but he was the one leading her to believe it. Part of him wanted to tell her, to say that her parents were alive and safe. That he was protecting them…that he would protect her and her son…  
But that wasn’t possible, he had to have her as well as the rest of the galaxy believe the lie. The truth couldn’t come out until the _Terentatek_ threat to them was gone. Until they were all safe. He’d lied before, lied for the benefit of a mission, lied in the face of torture…but this was different. He was breaking her heart for her own good and…it threatened to tear him apart. He stepped over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, unconsciously wishing he could convey everything he felt but couldn’t say to her. She didn’t shrug him away, she didn’t look at him, she just remained on her knees in silent painful tears.  
  
He wished he had something to say then…But what could he say? He knew the truth but he couldn’t tell her. He didn’t even trust himself to speak. He wasn’t sure what to do. He’d never seen her cry before. It was then he realized, despite their time together seven years ago…they had never really truly known each other. Much of her past remained a mystery to him…just as much of his remained a mystery to her. And with seven years having passed…they were different people now, no long seventeen year old teenagers with the only common ground of finding and wanting excitement in life.  
  
Part of him wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her while she grieved regardless of how foolish that was.  
  
She took a deep breath and sighed, her tears having stopped. His hand dropped from her shoulder and he took a step back.  
  
He had no place by her side, not in this moment. Not when he was leading her to believe the worst news he could have ever delivered.   
  
“I’ll be outside when you’re ready,” he whispered. She glanced up at him, her eyes still holding the sheen of tears.  
  
“Stay…please,” she asked. Her voice small and vulnerable. “I…I can’t do this alone.”  
  
He paused at the unexpected question and considered for a moment.  
  
“I’m willing to bet, that little boy will only want you when he wakes up, not some strange man,” Theron said in the softest voice he could muster.  
  
The disappointment in her eyes as her face fell was nearly enough to make him change his mind, but he needed to put some space between them.  
  
Or he’d put her and her son in danger.  
  
“I’ll be right outside, if you need me,” Theron said as he started towards the door. “Just take your time, Zandi.”  
  
He was about to key the door to open when she spoke up in the softest, saddest voice he’d ever heard.  
  
“Thank you, Theron, for bringing my son to me.”  
  
He paused and looked over his shoulder at her. She’d taken off one of her gloves and was gently stroking the hair from her sleeping son’s forehead. There was something about that sight that caused a strange emotion to well up in his chest. He frowned and left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Zandi, Poor Theron. and sooo much angst.


	18. Excerpt 18: The Master

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Master watches as certain pieces of his plan fall into place.

Somewhere within the depraved depths of Nar Shaddaa, a Rodian worked in secret. In a small square room, Xed was sliced into a series of terminals, his cybernetic implants working on overtime. Pumped with several different stimulants that both accelerated his neural activity and kept his body full of the nutrients it needed, he worked continuously. The Master’s plan was finally moving forward and it was his job to monitor it all. The first two attempts to bring in the target alive had failed. The first had been a test. The Master had not expected his quarry to be captured then, but he’d wanted to know her capabilities and so had tasked Xed with sending out a full team of deadly assassins to do just that. The results had been interesting, as had the master’s reaction. He’d grinned, as if proud which sent a chilling shiver down Xed’s spine. The second attempt…had failed but only in part was it due to the Target’s skills. The true reason was the complication.   
  
Xed had discovered that the Republic Strategic Information Service had sent an agent after their Target. He had not however done his due diligence in discovering the agent’s identity until it was already too late. SIS had upped their security protocols and parameters after his initial attack on their Nar Shaddaa cell’s local database. To slip in again without taking the proper precautions would not only land him caught and in a Republic prison…but dead in front of the Master.  
  
This particular slip up may still result in his early ‘retirement’ but not unless he was able to give the Master the agent’s name. Xed couldn’t believe his luck when he discovered the SIS agent involved in the second attempt to acquire the Target was someone the Target was acquainted with.  
  
It had taken a long amount of time, months actually before he’d been able to actually open the sealed portion of the Target’s personnel file but he’d managed it. He’d flagged three things he believed would be of interest to the Master. One was the Target had apparently been in the SIS though the time was indeed short. The second was the name of the Target’s Senior Agent during that short time. He’d made a note for the Master that the SIS agent responsible for intervening in the second attempt…was the same Senior Agent. The third was the name of the Target’s offspring.  
  
Xed could only hope that such information would keep him useful to the Master.  
  
One of his terminals pinged and he reacted instantly. Turning his head only slightly, he saw the data flowing in.  
  
The neutralization of the Target’s parents was a complete success.   
  
The Rodian nodded and dialed up a specific and highly encrypted frequency.  
  
The Master would be very pleased indeed.

 

After all these years, his plan was finally starting to move forward. He’d laid all the pieces in precise position across the board. It was only a matter of time before his goal was met and he would begin the final stage of his plan. It was still a stretch or time, perhaps a year before that would come to pass but it was approaching and starting to accelerate.  
  
A few setbacks had come up, according to the Rodian slicer he held in his employ but there was significantly interesting information to be gleaned from such setbacks and the Rodian remained useful.  
  
She was still beyond his grasp but those hateful impostors that had dared to call themselves her parents were done with. It would no doubt fuel the fire he was slowly lighting around her…It would prompt her into taking an extreme measure and the next part of his plan would fall into place perfectly.   
  
Leaning back in his chair, Khades, felt a stirring in the air around him. Lifting a cybernetic arm off his chair, he stroked the growling Akk Dog seated at his side.   
  
“In time,” Khades said in a low gravely voice. “Patience is a virtue.”  
  
He’d waited for the last twenty years, he could wait a little longer.


	19. Excerpt 19: Lashing Out, Stressed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi lashes out at Theron as she starts to crumble under the amount of stress on her shoulders. Old hurts mingle with the new hurts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have more angst!

The following week was filled with constant reminders of her parents deaths. General Garza had granted her emergency leave so she could make funeral arrangements as well as arrangements for her son. She couldn’t have a young boy on the Thunderclap…not when they were constantly being sent into beyond dangerous missions. She was also finding it extraordinarily difficult to help her son understand that his grandparents weren’t just gone or sleeping…but he was only a few weeks away from turning six years old…He’d spent so much time with them since he’d been born that she couldn’t help but be concerned. His routine was going to be severely changed.  
  
Their lives had just been turned upside down.  
  
She tipped her head to one side then the other and stretched her arms out as she tried to work out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. The heavy emotions of the last week and the stress of finding a safe place for her son on top of trying to make private funeral arrangements was starting to get to her. It wasn’t helping that she’d been hunched over a desk full of data-pads in the small two bed hotel suite she’d rented out at the last minute. Her parents home was demolished. It would be months before it was back to a livable condition. Not to mention that despite the current circumstances, she wasn’t going to be on the planet long enough to fully justify renting or buying a suitable apartment.  
  
Her personal holo-comm pinged an incoming holo-call prompting her to sigh as she felt the beginnings of headache settle in. Rubbing her temples she leaned on the desk with her elbows and tried to ignore the fifteenth call that morning.  
  
Several of the media news outlets on Coruscant wanted news about her parents deaths. Was the attack on them from a political rival? Did she think they were targeted because of some of her father’s political views? What would happen now that the Senator to Balmorra was dead?   
  
She’d fielded almost all of the questions with a “no comment” when she’d walked out of the Senate tower a week ago.   
  
Now the calls were daily.  
  
And they were not in anyway helping to keep her stress levels down. She was going to need to change her holo-frequency.  
  
The door chime rang then and she groaned inwardly and laid her head down on her arms.  
  
_Have the heartless reporters decided to hack in and find my hotel room number as well?_ She thought with annoyance when the chime rang again.  
  
Her holo-comm pinged again just as the door chimed.  
  
It was enough to make her pick up the device and throw it across the room where it crashed into the door and landed on the floor in several pieces. She stood and stalked across the room.  
  
Keying the door, she was already speaking.  
  
“No visitors, no well wisher, no reporters!” she snapped as the door slid open then her eyes went wide at the sight of Theron standing on her door step.  
  
“Uh…Hi,” Theron said, looking like he was at a loss for words as he shifted slightly. “I can come back later.”  
  
Zandi ran a hand through her hair and sighed, suddenly embarrassed by her outburst, “I…I’m sorry. Come in.”  
  
“You sure?” Theron asked, looking at her with concern. His voice strangely serious and soft. “I know it’s…a hard time for you right now.”  
  
“I’m sure,” She said quietly, waving him into the suite before silently wondering why she was even letting him in. He was no doubt there on Marcus Trant’s order. “I’m just a little stressed.”  
  
“A little, huh?” he asked as he stepped over her holo-comm before scooping the several pieces of it up. “Throwing things is a great stress reliever.”  
  
The door slid shut and she walked across the room back to the desk, “It helps sometimes,” she said as she took her seat and turned to face him. “Not as much as blowing things up but it works.”  
  
“I can fix it up for you,” he offered after a moment.  
  
“Don’t worry about it, I’d rather not have another fifteen calls today,” she said, waving the offer away. “I need to change my holo-frequency anyway. Go ahead and sit.”  
  
He looked a little uncomfortable for a moment before taking a seat on the sofa in the middle of the common area of the suite before setting the busted holo-comm on the coffee table.  
  
“So, what do you need?” She asked, jumping straight to the point.  
  
He frowned at her, “What do I need?”  
  
She arched an eyebrow at him, “Yeah…I know this isn’t a social call. That’s not in your particular skill set.”  
  
He blinked at her and she regretted the words as soon as she’d said them. He wasn’t her enemy…he was…he wasn’t her anything. Not anymore.  
  
“I’m…I’m sorry,” she said with an apologetic shake of her head, looking away from him. “I’m just…” she trailed off unsure of what to even say.  
  
“Hurting,” he said, his voice barely above audible but she looked at him. There was something in his expression that threatened to make the emotions she’d been trying to bury the past week break past her barriers. Seven years ago she would have told him, she would have poured it all out to him and he would have been uncomfortable…made a joke in an attempt to make her laugh and she would have let him. Seven years ago she’d been only seventeen, immature, brash…and she hadn’t had a son who relied on her to be strong, mature and responsible.  
  
“It is what it is, Theron,” She said finally, forcing herself to sound calm and ignore the longing she had to have his arms around her. She had to be strong, for herself and for her son. No one else would do that job, no one else could.  
  
He was studying her for a moment.  
  
“Look, I’m not the best company right now,” She said, “I’m not sure what you want. I’m grateful you brought my son home to me…” She trailed off as a thought occurred to her. Did he have a question as to whether the boy was his? Did he even want to know that?  
  
“Theron,” She said, meeting his eyes again. “You are aware that Ezekiel is not your son, right?”  
  
Something flickered across those hazel-golden eyes as his face went neutral and he shifted in his seat, “Uh, yeah. I can do math,” came the reply a tad too snarky and curt as if she’d hit a nerve.  
  
“I met his father a while after I left SIS,” She said. For some strange reason she felt compelled to explain as if…she wanted him to understand. “About six months after.”  
  
Theron’s face was neutral, very little in emotion to be seen, “Well…He’s a lucky guy.”  
  
Zandi scoffed and shook her head, “Too bad he didn’t think so.”  
  
The frown that came over his face surprised her.  
  
“You mean he left?” He finally asked, his voice taking on a hard edge.  
  
Zandi nodded then looked down at her hands, “Yeah. A week after I told him I was pregnant, he just up and disappeared.” She hadn’t been in love with the guy, she’d liked him well enough but…he hadn’t really held a candle to Theron. At first she’d only been after a rebound, something to take her mind off of her time in SIS and her time with…Theron.  
  
“Did you…care about him?” Theron asked, surprising her with the question. She looked up at him.  
  
“Uh…kind of,” She said deciding that there was nothing else but the truth. “But it wasn’t love. I liked him well enough at the time. Ezekiel wasn’t…planned if that’s what you’re asking.” It wasn’t as if it truly mattered to him. His curiosity was simply getting the better of him. Even if she had been the one to bring it up. _Why the hell did you bring this up?_ She mentally chastised herself.  
  
“That wasn’t-”  
  
“Why do you even want to know?” She asked, suddenly. He didn’t give a damn seven years ago when she left. He’d been very clear about that. In fact she figured he’d be trying to put as much distance between them as possible. “If this is just a misguided attempt to pretend you care, I would really rather you didn’t.”  
  
 _You brought it up…_ She pointedly ignored her own inner logic.  
  
He frowned at her and his eyes flashed in anger, “I’m not pretending…I…” he stood up then. “I picked a bad time to visit. I’ll be on the holo if you need me.” He strode to the door and she felt her a pang of annoyance in her chest. Annoyance at him and at herself for not thinking before she spoke. She ran over her face and turned back to her desk. It was better if he left…she couldn’t deal with old and new wounds at the same time.  
  


“No, you won’t,” she said quietly, unaware that he had heard her. He paused at the door as her words sliced him. He knew what she meant, she was referring to the several ignored holo calls and the messages she’d left after she’d left the SIS.  
  
The ones he’d never opened and never returned.  
  
He saw the way she leaned into her desk, tired and…defeated.  
  
But there was nothing else for him to say.  
  
_I’m part of the reason…_ He thought as the door slid open. It had been foolish of him to have stopped by…It was a fabricated necessity born out of his own guilt. He was being selfish when she needed someone to be selfless for her…  
  
He stepped through the door and left, wondering what the hell he’d been thinking.  
  
 _Good job, buddy,_ he thought sarcastically to himself. _Now, she thinks you’re an ass._


	20. Excerpt 20: A Little Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi, more clear headed and with few options, turns to Theron for help in protecting her son. Old feelings that have lingered over the years rise, she ignores them but the tears come anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tis sad, but there is some fluff.

Being nervous wasn’t something Zandromeda was necessarily accustomed to. Nor was it something she liked. Nerves tended to make her question her choices, second guess herself. Which was exactly what she was doing even as she walked down a hallway towards the door of an apartment that wasn’t hers but was very familiar to her. Honestly, she wasn’t even sure he still had the apartment. It was quite possible he moved or chose a different residence over the last seven years. Hell, he could have chosen to move to another planet entirely. She really shouldn’t even be here to find out. There was no reason she could have waited for Jonas to return her call but with SIS agents, waiting for a call could range anywhere from mere hours to months even years in some cases. _Or never with others_ , she thought then shook her head. She could have just called Theron…but there was that doubt he would even return her call. He never had before.  
  
 _That was seven years ago,_ she told herself rationally. _He’s probably changed just as you have…_  
  
Before she realized it, she was standing in front of his door. Old feelings, old emotions from seven years ago slowly rose up colliding with memories of their time together…She frowned and looked down at the ground. That was a different time, a time when they were seventeen, looking for adventure. A time when approaching his door was something she’d looked forward to, feeling butterflies twirling about in her stomach each time. Now, she was a wreck of stress and nerves…Her stomach was clenching into knots. It was different when she knew he probably didn’t want to see her. He’d only shown up recently in her life out of necessity because of his job. Helping her protect her son, wasn’t exactly part of that…  
  
This was such a stupid idea. What in the galaxy did she think she was doing by coming to him for help?  
  
She pinched the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb as she let out a heavy sigh.   
  
_You’re not thinking rationally, Kenobi,_ she silently chastised herself as she ran her hand up over her face and through her hair. _Just like two nights ago when he showed up to visit you and you were a complete ass to him._   
  
The door slid open before her.  
  
“Zandi?”  
  
She looked up and met Theron’s hazel-golden eyed gaze. His brow was furrowed in confusion. She was lost for a moment in that gaze, the colors of his eyes once again reminding her the Coruscant sunsets she loved. She blinked when his eyebrow arched up.  
  
“Um..Hi,” she said lamely, forcing herself to look anywhere but his eyes. “Is this a bad time?”  
  
_Coming here was a very bad idea_ , she thought to herself.  
  
“I was just about to go get lunch,” he answered. He was frowning at her, no doubt wondering what she was doing on his door step and probably wanting her to leave.  
  
“Oh, okay, um,” she said, suddenly finding it difficult to articulate half-way decent words. “You know what, I don’t want to hold you up.” She started to turn away. She would just go back to her hotel suite and wait for Jonas to call back…Like she should have done in the first place. “I’ll just…um…I’ll just…go,” she said as she took a step away.  
  
His hand snaked out and gently grasped her by the elbow sending a jolt of electricity through her. She froze and looked back at him, her eyes wide in surprise. A strange look crossed his face before he dropped his hand.  
  
“What’s going on, Zandi?” He asked her, his expression turned into one of concern and she wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that.   
  
“I…” she looked away from his eyes again. “I need some help with something.”  
  
“Okay,” he said, stepping back and making a space for her to step through the door. “Come in and we can talk about it.”  
  
“I don’t want to interrupt or delay your lunch,” she said, giving a shake of her hand. There were too many memories in that apartment and she wasn’t sure she could deal with them on top of everything else.  
  
“It’s not a problem, Zandi,” Theron said, his voice turning soft. She met his eyes again and something in her melted when she saw the skin around his eyes had softened, the golden colors seeming to brighten the area around them.  
  
“I…” she started then stopped herself. _There is no harm in asking_ , she tried to justify to herself as she gave him a nod and stepped through the doorway past him.   
  
It was almost like stepping back into time. His apartment was almost exactly as it had been seven years ago with a few exceptions. His furniture was set up in the same way though he had acquired a few more pieces since then. It was relaxed and a bit too clean just like it had been back then. They would be gone from Coruscant more often then they had been home. She doubted that much had changed in seven years. She couldn’t help the smile that touched her face when she looked around. It even smelled the same. Just like him.  
  
Focus, Kenobi, she reminded herself as he stepped past her into the living room area. Her smile faded as she gave a quick shake of her head.  
  
“Can I…uh…get you anything?” He asked, looking decidedly uncomfortable.  
  
“Um, No…thank you,” she answered and she shifted her feet nervously. “This will only take a few minutes. Then I’ll be out of your hair.”  
  
He frowned at her again but nodded.  
  
“Okay…well,” she said, deciding it was best for both of them to get to the point of her visit before she made him more uncomfortable. “I’m taking my son to Dantooine. There is an old friend of the family who has a farm there. I can’t keep him with me, not with as many dangerous high risk assignments that Havoc Squad is pulled into almost daily.”  
  
“Who is this old family friend?” Theron asked. She noticed that he was watching her intently and once again she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She looked away and unconsciously reached up to her neck and toyed with the pendant she always wore. She didn’t notice the way his eyes flickered to the movement, nor the way they focused briefly on the very same pendant he’d given her…seven years ago. It didn’t even occur to her that he would notice.  
  
“Her name is Amilee Delvri,” she answered, “She’s the only option I have, unless I resign from the Military…but I don’t have the finances to do that right now.”  
  
“Alright, what do you need from me?” He asked, his voice calm and even soft.   
  
“I was hoping you could…use your SIS resources and keep an eye on things there,” She said frowning and taking a deep breath. “I have a strange feeling…I know that sounds ridiculous…but with all that's happened…I need to be sure he will be truly safe.”  
  
“Consider it done,” he answered without a moment of hesitation.  
  
The answer surprised her, she stared at him in shock. She’d expected him to give her reasons why it wasn’t a good idea or to ask her why she didn’t just ask Jonas…He had changed…  
  
“I…Thank you, Theron,” she said, feeling a bit of the weight on her shoulders lift. “You have no idea what that means to me. I’ll repay you for this favor. Just-”  
  
“Zandi,” he spoke, stopping her in her attempt to promise him some sort of recompense. “You don’t owe me anything. Its the least I can do given the situation.” His voice was so soft and the way he was looking at her…Her barriers broke then and tears welded up in her eyes as the stress and grief she’d been trying to keep at bay for the last two weeks finally overcame her defenses.  
  
Her hand fluttered up to her face, trying to keep any tears that slipped through from his view. She desperately tried to reign in her emotions. The complexities of them a bit too much for her to even attempt to compartmentalize right then. Her heart was beating too fast and she took a deep shuddering breath as she turned away from him.   
  
She needed to leave, she couldn’t let him see her like this. A broken husk of a woman.  
  
“Zandi…” his soft voice threatened to make her crumble.  
  
“I’m…s-sorry,” She said and started for the door, trying to keep her face from his view. If there was one thing she knew about men, they rarely ever cared to see women crying…and she wasn’t ever one to cry period.   
  
“Hey,” Theron said, his voice at her ear as she felt him gently grasp her shoulders. For some bizarre reason, be it the stress, the grief, or the clear fact she’d lost all sense, she didn’t resist him as he gently turned her around to face him. She kept her head down, one hand still trying to shield her teary face.  
  
“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said in a tone so sincere it felt like a warm blanket was being draped across the cold grief that was overwhelming her. One of his hands slid over hers and he gently pulled it away from her face as his other hand slipped under her chin. He pushed upwards gently and raised her eyes to his.  
  
“I’ll do whatever I can to keep your son safe,” he said quietly. The sincerity in his eyes melted away the rest of her defenses and the tears finally fell.  
  
“I’m so scared,” she whispered through her tears. For the first time in her life, she felt safe enough to even voice that. His thumb brushed away a tear leaving a trail of warmth across her cheek before he pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her.   
  
“I’ll protect you,” he said in a whisper at her ear and for a moment she thought she’d imagined it.  
  
She clung to him as she wept and he didn’t let go.


	21. Excerpt 21: A Little Levity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandi throws a small birthday party for her now 6 year old son. She'd sent an invitation to Theron, feeling it was best for him to get to know the little boy he was helping to protect. Or, at least, that was what she had told herself.

Two morning passed before Zandi bumped into Theron again in the Senate Plaza market. Preoccupied with perusing a selection of birthday themed streamers, she didn’t notice the red leather jacket that entered the main market area, nor did she noticed the slight falter in the man’s steps when he noticed her. She was checking out the last bit of party decorations when he came up to her.  
  
“Throwing a party?” He asked and felt bad when she nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice. She glanced over at him and let out a laugh when she saw it was him.  
  
“Oh, wow,” She chuckled, her hand fluttering up to her chest for a moment before she shook her head. “See you didn’t learn your lesson about sneaking up on unsuspecting innocent people.”  
  
“Well, you know me, stubborn,” Theron shrugged with a smirk of his own that lingered as her own did while she finished checking out her items. He realized that it was a sight he hadn’t seen in…well since she left the SIS.   
  
“Yes, you are stubborn,” she said turning from the checkout. She looked up at him as he stepped aside. “And yes, I’m throwing a small birthday party for my son.”  
  
Theron nodded, noting the way the smile faltered slightly, letting a sliver of sadness to seep through before it disappeared while she juggled several different bags with the newest addition.   
  
“Need help?” He asked, gesturing to several different bags she was carrying. She glanced up at him for a moment with a slight frown before giving a nod.  
  
“Appreciate it,” She said as he relieved her of at least half of her bags. He briefly wondered just why he was even doing this. She didn’t need him around while she was trying to grieve. Or at least that was what he kept telling himself. Ever since the other night, he had been unable to stop worrying about her. If he was honest with himself, it wasn’t something he had ever truly stopped, but he wasn’t being honest with himself.   
  
“No problem,” Theron said. They fell into step together and a slightly awkward silence.   
  
“I have a taxi waiting,” she said finally as they climbed the steps from the market place and back out onto the Plaza.  
  
“Lead the way,” he said with a nod. They continued walking to the taxi pad in silence again. He wanted to speak but for the moment he didn’t have the words nor was he quite sure what was okay to talk about. They weren’t the same people they had been at seventeen.   
  
At the taxi, he helped her get the bags loaded up when she turned to him again.  
  
“Thanks, Theron,” she said. The way the daylight brought out those golden highlights in her crimson red hair and seemed to make her green eyes shine like gems…he nearly blurted out how beautiful she looked but caught himself at the last second. _Not exactly the best timing,_ he thought before giving her a smile.  
  
“Don’t mention it,” he said.  
  
“I mean it,” she said, looking away from him for a second. Her gaze turned upward towards the sky before settling back on him. “For everything.”  
  
“Just give me a call when you and your son are ready to leave for Dantooine,” he said with a slight cough to clear his throat. It was time to go, he was standing here practically gawking at her. “Hope your little boy’s birthday is a good one.”  
  
“I…Thanks,” she said, the smile slipping away as she turned away to get into the taxi. A few moments later, Theron was standing on the taxi pad watching her taxi disappear into the Coruscant Sky lanes. She looked like she’d had something to say to him…  
  
Truth be told, he’d wanted to talk to her and not just about protecting her son. He gave a quick shake of his head before he turned and started making his way to his own speeder.   
  
_Some things are best left unsaid_ , he thought.  
  


That afternoon found Zandromeda sitting at the dining room table in her hotel suite. She was checking things off a to-do list in her personal data-pad as the cake she’d made in the freezer. Ezekiel had requested her mother’s ‘famous’ ice-cream cake. She’d agreed without a second’s hesitation. Ice-cream cake for birthday celebrations was something of a tradition in their family since her first birthday after she’d been adopted. That had been her tenth birthday and the first one celebrated in such a way.   
  
Ezekiel was always given the choice of what he wanted his birthday to be like and while the boy’s imagination was highly active and every year was a different theme, he always wanted Meemaw’s ice-cream cake.  
  
She couldn’t help the smile that surfaced as she remembered her son’s face all bright and happy when he insisted on helping make his birthday cake.  
  
The door chime sounded then, halting her thoughts and prompting her to set her data-pad down on the table.  
  
“Mom!” Ezekiel called out as he bounded across the common area of the suit towards the door. “They’re here!”  
  
Zandi chuckled as she stood up and met him at the door, “One second there, speed racer,” she said before looked through the door’s peep hole to see several familiar faces.   
  
“Okay,” she said backing up half a step and watching as Ezekiel tapped the door’s interior keypad. He had the biggest smile on his face as the door slid open to reveal the majority of Havoc squad standing there with wrapped parcel’s in their hands. Along side them were two woman, both a few years Zandi’s senior each with a young boy. Both boys waved before making a bee-line through the crowd to Ezekiel.   
  
“Kelrin! Jaxe!” Ezekiel said in delight as the three boys embraced each other.  
  
“Happy birfday, Zeek!” The child named Kelrin said with excitement.  
  
“Thanks!”  
  
“Invite everyone in, Kiddo,” Zandi chuckled.  
  
“Oh right!” Ezekiel laughed before turning to the group of visitors. He gave yet another big smile as he bowed dramatically.  
  
“Welcome and come on in!” He said cheerfully before turning and gesturing for them all to enter.  
  
A rumble of chuckles followed the visitors into the hotel suite.   
  
“Your son is adorable,” her medic said with a quiet chuckle.   
  
“Thanks, Elara,” She said as she shut the door.   
  
The party started and continued without a hitch. Zandi sat at the dining room table with the other adults as they watched over the three young boys playing various games of the holo-edition variety and those of make believe. The conversation that she was paying just enough attention to in order to utter the appropriate responses was lighthearted and bordered ‘small talk’.   
  
Dinner was later served. The boys ate happily. There was laughter and more lighthearted talk. No mention of her parents or even questions of Ezekiel’s well being since the attack. She was thankfully for it. This was to be as happy an occasion as she could make it given the circumstances. Something simple and happy, that was all she could hope for.   
  
Still, she kept half expecting her parents to walk through the door with smiles and hugs.  
  
She kept the soft smile on her face. Her son was what mattered right now and he was smiling, laughing, enjoying himself.   
  
A while later she was slipping dinner dishes into the sink and was about to pull the ice-cream cake from the freezer when the door chime sounded. She glanced at the door with a frown. A quick glance and a twitch of her wrist she signaled the Havoc members to remain where they were but alert. The boys continued playing, having not even heard the door chime. She casually made her way to the door. When she looked through the peep hole, she let out a gasp of surprise.   
  
Theron was standing out there with something in his hands. She blinked once, then twice, thinking she had started seeing things.  
  
 _He…he’s here_ , she thought, feeling a bit dumbfounded. She’d figured with his words at their last meeting just this morning the he’d decided not to join. She’d sent him an invitation last night. She’d thought it was a good idea for him to get to know the boy he was helping to protect. Or at least that was what she’d told herself.  
  
She realized she was taking a bit too long to answer the door and fumbled slightly with the keypad. The door slid open.  
  
“Theron,” she said, a smile coming to her lips easier than before. “I was beginning to think my invitation got lost.”  
  
Theron gave a chuckle, “Uh, yeah. Sorry, I’m late.” He started. “I actually didn’t get the message till this morning, after the marketplace so…” He trailed off with a shrug.   
  
“Come on in,” She said, stepping aside to let him through. “You’re just in time for cake, you can put the gift on the table.”  
  
“Best part of a party is the cake,” he chuckled, stepping past her.   
  
“Theron!” Ezekiel’s voice caught her attention as she let the door slide shut.   
  
“Hey there, Kid,” Theron said, a slight amount of surprise echoed in his voice as the six year old practically charged at him. Zandi couldn’t help the laugh that slipped through when she saw Theron’s face as the boy wrapped his small arms around his waist. He looked completely out of his element and it showed in the slightly awkward way he patted Ezekiel on the back.   
  
“Let him breath a bit, Ezekiel,” Zandi chuckled. Ezekiel let go of Theron and gave the man a bright smile.  
  
“I’m glad you’re here!” Ezekiel said.   
  
Theron chuckled though he gave a slightly confused glance at Zandi before looking back at Ezekiel. “Hey, turning six is a big deal. I wouldn’t miss it.”  
  
“Well, it’s perfect timing,” Zandi said and gave Ezekiel a wink. “It’s time for cake and presents.”  
  
“Yes!” Ezekiel said excitedly while bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “You’re gonna love this cake, guys!” He turned and headed over to the dining room table where the adults chuckled.  
  
“He remembers you bringing him home, Theron,” she whispered to Theron.   
  
Theron chuckled with a smirk as they crossed the common area towards the dining table, “Figures. Perfect memory is a family trait then?”  
  
“That’s what I have been told,” She said before continuing in to the kitchen. She silently wondered at the strange feeling in her chest. Why did she feel a bit lighter all of a sudden? As if she wasn’t holding the tattered shards of her life together by the very seams? As she pulled the cake from the freezer, she could hear his low smooth voice from the dining room and Ezekiel’s laughter mingling with it. Something about that just…She couldn’t explain it exactly.  
  
She wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to.   
  
After adding the candles to the cake, she started towards the dining room.   
  
“Lights, dim seventy-five percent,” she said before reaching the door.  
  
They sang “Happy Birthday” to a delightfully excited Ezekiel who was practically bouncing up and down in his seat as she set the cake before him. He looked up at her after the song ended. She smiled and nodded. With a deep breath, he blew out every candle to a round of applause.  
  
Cake was cut up and served to everyone as Ezekiel opened several gifts. Each gift giver was then given a hug in thanks. There were two more gifts, her’s and…Theron’s rather large gift.  
  
It was the large package that Ezekiel picked up and tore into with barely suppressed excitement. She tilted her head from where she stood behind him, leaning against the wall to get a better view. It was a set of Do-It-Yourself Star-ship models. She gave Theron an amused glance as Ezekiel jumped up and threw his arms around Theron once more. This time, Theron didn’t seem as awkward with the hug as he had been earlier.  
  
“I wasn’t sure what to get you, but I remember your mom liked making things with her hands,” Theron was saying to Ezekiel. “So, I figured that maybe you did too.”  
  
“I love building models!” Ezekiel said, smiling up at him before looking at her. “Look, mom! Your ship is in here!”  
  
It wasn’t the exact model of The Spear but it was certainly close enough. She smiled at him, “Fits the Havoc Stripes, Aric gave you.”  
  
She glanced at Theron briefly, their gazes met and she mouthed the words, _Good Call_. He responded with a wink that gave her a slight flutter in her stomach. Adverting her eyes quickly, she focused on her son opened the last gift and pointedly ignoring said flutter.  
  
“Oh, wow!” Ezekiel exclaimed as he looked at the box of the second edition Zen Cube game console. He turned his and stared up at her with utter joy written on his face.  
  
“Awww, thank you, mom!” He said, bouncing up and wrapping his arms around her.  
  
Hugging him back, she chuckled, “Happy birthday, Big Man.”  
  
“I love you, Mommy,” he said in her ear.   
  
“I love you, too, my sunshine,” she said back to him, hugging him a little tighter. She closed her eyes in an attempt to stop any tears from breaking through as such, she didn’t notice the unguarded fond look on Theron’s face as he watched mother and son hug one another.   
  
This kind of moment is what she wanted for her son. A little moment of joy and that child-like excitement.   
  
_Just a little levity._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt that young Ezekiel needed some happy in the midst of all the angst going on with the family side of things.


	22. Excerpt 22: Dantooine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron accompanies Zandi and Ezekiel to Dantooine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ready for MOAR AGNST?!  
> Well, here you are XD

Four days later, Theron stood on the landing ramp of Havoc Squad’s BT-7 Thunderclap, affectionately christened The Spear, by her crew. He stood watching as Zandromeda walked with her young son across the lush green fields of Dantooine towards a farm house set on a remote patch of land. He’d looked up Amilee Delvri and had found no cause for concern in the woman’s files. She was, for all intents and purposes, the perfect place for the young boy to stay while his mother reported for duty. She had no ties to anything outside of Dantooine and as remote and nonstrategic as the planet was…it was the second safest place in the galaxy for him.   
  
But there was something that had caused Zandi to even come to him even if she couldn’t put a finger on it. After her son's birthday party had ended and she'd put the kid to bed, she’d sat down and told Theron about the first ambush on Tatooine, the message her team had found afterward which had been the reason General Garza had contacted SIS…She’d then confided in him that the name _The Terentatek_ sounded familiar but she had yet to be able to place it. She had no idea why it was familiar…only that it was. He was still looking into _The Terentatek_ files, trying to cross reference them between the files of her and her parents. It was taking an exorbitant amount of time but he was trying to be as thorough as possible. There was also something in the back of his mind, his instincts were telling him there was something off about the place…but everything he’d already looked over had checked out more than once. He had even pulled the woman’s file and added it to the list for cross-referencing. The stakes were too high otherwise to cut any corners, to just assume that this woman was completely and wholly safe.   
  
Those stakes being the lives of the mother and son he watched walked towards the farm house as he trailed behind from a distance, keeping an eye out for anything even remotely suspicious. There was a growing sense of dread in the back of his mind the more days that passed on this whole _Terentatek_ business. There had been no new ambushes or attacks since the one on her parents…In reality, that had been his hope in letting the rest of the galaxy believe her parents had perished in the attack…It still tore at him, the more he saw the affect that it had on Zandi.  
  
The only thing that made it bearable was the fact that he and Marcus had both agreed to not send her son with her parents into hiding. It would have broken her too thoroughly…and that was something he didn’t want to even imagine. The boy was an innocent and he’d made a promise to her parents…as well as a silent vow to her that he’d protect the boy.  
  
They’d made it to the front door and he paused by the gate of the land’s fence, watching, alert.  
  
An older Cathar female appeared as the house’s front door slid open. She smiled warmly and opened her arms for Zandi’s embrace before Zandi then gestured to the six year old boy next to her who waved. The Cathar smiled and knelt down to speak to the boy. A few moments of conversation happened. Zandi and the Cathar discussed something before Zandi then knelt down before her son and took him in her arms. Even from this distance he could see both of them holding tightly to each other. He had to look away, it was a private mother and son moment. One that as sweet as it was to see, it made him uncomfortable. Instead, he studied the building and ignored the strange mix of emotions that tried to wash over him.   
  
The house wasn’t exactly tight with security…but he’d already scouted it out and placed perimeter sensors hidden around the property. There were only so many precautions he could take without actually giving away the location, not to mention alerting the owner of the house. For all this Amilee Delvri knew, Ezekiel was only staying here as long as his mother was on duty with Havoc Squad for the next couple of months until she could ‘make permanent arrangements’.   
  
Even so, there was still an ever-growing dread in the back of his mind.   
  
He needed to get those files cross-referenced as soon as possible. Maybe then he’d have a better handle on what his instincts were trying to tell him.  
  
After a few moments Zandi was approaching him. He looked past her to the house, to see the boy sticking his head out the window. The sad look on his face tore at Theron’s heartstrings in a way he hadn’t expected. He made eye-contact with Ezekiel and smiled with a nod that seemed to make the sadness dissipate a bit. Ezekiel smiled back and waved before he left the window. His attention was back on Zandi who was now standing beside him, looking back at the house a small smile on her otherwise sad face.  
  
“He’ll be okay,” Theron said, looking at her. She nodded and wiped away a tear before looking back at him.  
  
“I know…” She said, her voice on the verge of breaking. “It’s just…It’s just really hard right now.” She turned and stared walking back to the ship, giving one last look at the house.  
  
Her green eyes were shining with unshed tears but she took a deep breath and her composure as the Captain of Havoc Squad slid into place. He kept pace with her. They walked in silence but it was at the landing ramp of the ship when she finally spoke.  
  
“I know I’ve said this several times already,” She said turning towards him, her eyes meeting his. “But thank you. Those words sound so…lame for what they mean but…you didn’t have to agree or do any of this…”  
  
“You don’t have to thank me for anything,” He said as he fought to keep the guilt he felt from showing on his face. “Pretty sure I mentioned that already.”  
  
“That boy means the world to me…” she said, her eyes drifting over to the house before moving back to him. There was moment of silence as they looked at each other. Her hand raised up and drifted across his cheek. Though the action took him by surprise…he didn’t pull away nor flinch at the remembered sensation of her skin on his.  
  
“Just…Thank you,” she said in a whispered voice before she seemed to catch herself and her hand dropped. Her cheeks flushed an adorable shade of pink as she looked away from him, embarrassed.  
  
“I’m sorry,” she murmured.   
  
“Don’t be,” he said without thinking but she was already walking up the landing ramp leaving him with that strange tightness in his chest. He took a deep breath and glanced back at the farm house before following her up the landing ramp into the ship.  
  
He had a lot of work ahead of him, it was best to remain focused.  
  
For all of their sakes.


	23. Excerpt 23: Ghost of The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron investigates the Terentatek files. During his cross-referencing and several pots of caf later, he makes a shocking discovery, that which links Zandi to The Terentatek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like Theron doing his cybernetic/slicing/spy thing. Also, have a tiny bit more angst. XD

Theron had managed to finally get the cross-referencing down to a more a manageable size. The files of Zandromeda and her parents and Amilee Delvri had been cross-referenced with the Top Secret _Terentatek_ files. Now he needed to dig into the flags his cross referencing program picked up and hopefully get something that he could work with, something he could use to stop _The Terentatek_ before it was too late. The pressure was on and the stakes were high. He’d been hunched over his terminal for several hours already but he felt no need to stop. He felt no desire to stop. The ever-growing dread he felt was hanging over his head like a storm cloud.  
  
He pulled the data from Careenya’s and Zenith’s files and started in on the hits he’d collected. There wasn’t any direct connections to the _Terentatek_ which was what he’d expected initially. What had been flagged, was old correspondence sent to the Senator and his wife from roughly thirteen years ago. He brought each message up on his data-pad and started to read through it. He frowned at the first message.

_Senator Zenith,_   
_You and your Jedi are in possession of that which is not yours._   
_I will come to collect that which is mine and you will both pay gravely_   
_~KT_

There was no sender, and encrypted message with a wiped sending frequency…Theron flagged it for further review before he continued to the next message which caused a thread of worry to lance through his veins.

_Senator,_   
_She is not your daughter, and parading her around as if she was_   
_Only makes matters worse for you._   
_She is mine._   
_~KT_

Theron knew Zandromeda was the only daughter of Zenith and Careenya. She’d been adopted, clearly…This KT person apparently knew that. The message made it clear whoever this KT was, he or she believed Zandi was theirs…If this person was connected to The Terentatek…He frowned again and flagged the message before moving onto the next one.

_Senator,_   
_Your time will come._   
_She is MINE._   
_~KT_

Each message was a veiled threat but they were getting shorter and shorter. The next and final message was one line.

_SHE IS MINE_   
_~Terentatek_

Theron’s eyes landed on _Terentatek_. KT was _The Terentatek_. He didn’t have indisputable proof but he didn’t need it to confirm what his instincts were already telling him. _The Terentatek_ believed Zandi belonged to him or her…and given the actions and events over the last year and a half…this person believed it was finally time to collect. His worry began mingling with the dread he felt. If this was the actual man the files referred to…Frowning, he brought up the encrypted code of each message. He could crack this encryption and he would find the point of origin for each message. If he did that and each point of origin was the same or too similar to truly be different, he could use that.  
  
It took him several more hours hunched over his terminal. Starting from the ground up was the best course of action. Slicing wasn’t just a skill it was an _art_ and like with many different arts in the galaxy, Slicing had a series of fundamentals that started as the cornerstone of a slicer’s foundation. They then built upon that foundation with their own versions of techniques, learned lessons…It would then be ever built upon leaving only the signature of the artist.   
  
_There you are,_ he thought as he zeroed in on a now familiar line of code. Something niggled at him in the back of his mind and he considered the line of code for a moment. If this was the signature… then it would be…  
  
He pulled up the logs from the Nar Shaddaa database attack…Sifting through the data via his implants, he scanned for that same line of code.  
  
It took several minutes but before long he had his confirmation.  
  
The slicer responsible for the attack on the SIS database on Nar Shaddaa…was the very same person who sent these messages to the Kenobi’s thirteen years ago.  
  
Tipping his head from side to side to stretch out the kink in his neck, he had another pang of insight. The messages held the same meaning, Zandi was adopted and this man knew it…Only a parent believed to have been wronged would that vehement…A parent _unfit_ to be a parent…  
  
Theron frowned. He’d never pried into Zandi’s past. She’d rarely spoken of it just as he had rarely spoken of his. He knew she’d spent some time in her childhood on Nar Shaddaa before she’d been adopted…  
  
He pulled up Zandi’s personnel file and the cross-referenced data…He scanned through her record…she’d been adopted by Careenya and Zenith when she’d been just days shy of ten years old. She had only a couple of run ins with the law on Nar Shaddaa, the first being at the young age of six alongside one Azaria Dace.  
  
Despite the situation that was sending him into delving in her file, he snorted. He remembered Azaria from the few occasions Zandi had a ‘girls night’ seven years ago. He wasn’t surprised to see that she’d managed to get Zandi in trouble back when they had been children. A long time friend, Zandi had said…  
  
He focused on his task and dug deeper. The incident reports on those run ins held a different surname for Zandi than Kenobi…Rand. It made sense that her official name was changed to Kenobi when she’d been adopted. He checked the cross-referenced data file and scanned for the name Rand. A few minutes later he had several hits. Her original birth certificate, buried under a silly amount of red tape, held her birth name.  
  
 _Zandromeda Rayne Rand  
_  
A distant part of his mind found it interesting that he’d never known her middle name until now. Of course, middle names weren’t all that common place anymore. He scanned down the document, finding her biological parents’ names.  
  
Her mother was listed as _Zewhan Trion-Rand._ So her mother was married into the name…  
  
Her father was listed as _Khades Rand_. Theron squinted at the first name… _Khades_ …could be the author of the messages but he needed to cross-reference and dig into this man more to be sure. He wasn’t exactly liking where this was heading but he needed to know, to confirm his suspicions and have the proof…Zandi would need that proof.  
  
He cross referenced the name, _Khades Rand_ , with _The Terentatek_ files and wasn’t all that surprised with how many hits came up.  
  
Looking over each hit took a few hours but by the end, he had the confirmation.  
  
 _Khades Rand_ was the _The Terentatek._  
  
And Zandi was his biological daughter.  
  
 _Oh Zandi…_ He thought with a sad sigh. He needed to talk to her about this and that wasn’t going to be an easy thing for either of them.


	24. Excerpt 24: Haunted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron meets with Zandi, after an amusing individual crosses their pasts, he tells her what he's discovered. She then remembers who her biological father is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EVER MOAR ANGST! Why? Because I'm an evil bastard apparently. XD

_“Meet me at Carrick Station, it’s important.”_  
  
That was all he had said in the very short transmission she’d received a week ago. She had sent a message back stating when she would even be able to meet him, given she was recruiting and flying all over the galaxy in preparation for taking on the Gauntlet. Havoc Squad was ready for it…they were just resupplying on Carrick Station before getting the final brief with Garza done before heading off.  
  
She walked through Carrick station’s main level before descending down the stairs into the station’s circular cantina level. The station was its usual bustle of activity and it was refreshing to walk through most of it with little notice. Too many people of late had been recognizing her as the head of Havoc Squad and that…was a bit unsettling given their Top Secret classification. Of course it made sense, top secret or not, Havoc Squad was the face of the Republic Army. Her parents deaths only increased the amount her face and name had been in the news. It was hard to believe that was only five months ago. It still felt as if she’d just been given the news only yesterday.   
  
Which was, of course, the reason she was apprehensive about meeting with Theron. She hoped that if something concerned her son, Theron would have been smart enough not to wait to give her the news.   
  
There was another reason she was nervous, one that had nothing to do with missions or secret shadows gunning for her. Each time she saw him, she was reminded of what they had…and what could have been. Old feelings she thought were gone, had returned and confusing thoughts only made it all worse. She could do nothing but squash and ignore them.   
  
Halfway through the Cantina, she spied a familiar red leather jacket tucked away in one of the slightly secluded booths. With a deep breath, she steeled herself and started towards him. She met his eyes as she approached and he gave a small smile and waved before his expression changed quite dramatically as his gazed seemed to spy something behind her. She ignored it and continued on. Whatever other business he had on Carrick station was not her concern.   
  
He stood up when she reached the table.  
  
“Theron,” she said with a nod.  
  
“Zandi,” he responded, sounding professional.  
  
Keeping herself in a professional manner would make sure they didn’t have a repeat of Coruscant. Or at least, she hoped it would.  
  
“You look tired,” she commented, noticing the slightly disheveled look to his hair and the slight darkening under his eyes as she sat down. He chuckled and leaned back in the booth.  
  
“Hazards of the job,” he said with a shrug before his eyes briefly swept over her. “You look good.”  
  
“So…what did you want to meet about,” she said after a slight clearing of her throat. He pushed a drink towards her.   
  
She shook her head, “I’m on duty, Theron.”  
  
“It’s _caf_.”  
  
“Oh, well in that case, thank you,” she answered, pulling the hot cup towards her. The aroma was very familiar and something she rarely had outside of Coruscant. Military Caf left much to be desired. Noticing the creamy color, she briefly wondered if he had remembered the way she usually took her caf. She sniffed at the cup before taking a tentative sip. Sweet cream and warm caf trailed down her throat and seemed to continue down to her stomach where the warmth pooled. He had remembered. She would have smiled at him if it wasn’t for the loud voice that spoke up from a few feet away.  
  
“Well, if it isn’t Theorn Shanks.”  
  
She frowned and arched an eyebrow as she glanced over to see a young woman dressed in black leatheris slacks over knee high boots, a black vest over a simple grey tube top that left her mid-riff for all to see. She looked like a freighter captain as well as one with a chip on her shoulder given the way her way too curly hair of a dyed red color was haphazardly thrown up in a bun. She was glaring daggers at Theron as she stalked towards them, turning heads as she spoke a bit too loudly. Zandi couldn’t help but stare at the woman even as she wondered why in the hell this star-ship captain even knew the drunk version she’d written of Theron’s name nearly eight years ago.  
  
Zandi glanced over at Theron who was running an hand over his face and looking like he wanted to leave right then and there. He glanced around for an exit but the booth he had picked held one way out save jumping over the chairs and the table. The woman stopped right at the booth’s edge and it was then she noticed Zandi, sitting casually in her Havoc Squad armor, taking a calm sip of her caf.   
Blue eyes raked over her and paused on her face before turning ice cold. Zandi arched an eyebrow at her. Whatever this woman’s problem was with Theron wasn’t her concern, but Zandi felt a prick of annoyance at the way the woman was sizing her up.  
  
“Looks like you actually went and found her,” the woman stated, contempt coloring her tone as she pointedly looked at Theron and crossed her arms.  
  
Theron sighed and rolled his eyes, “For the love of…What do you want, Diana?”  
  
Zandi took another sip of her caf, watching the exchange. This was actually a bit amusing and reminded her a little of Theron’s encounter on Alderaan with the drunk Noble lady. There was clearly history between Theron and this woman however…which was not the case on Alderaan.   
  
“What do I want?” Diana asked, “If you had bothered to return any of my calls you would know.”  
  
“This is not the place-”  
  
“The hell it isn’t. What better way to get you to come clean with me than to catch you in public in front of your newest one night stand,” Diana said, her voice growing shrill before she pegged a look on Zandi. “Or should I say, your own left overs.”  
  
“That’s enough, Diana,” Theron said in an icy tone. “Now back off and go home.”  
  
“Oh, no,” Diana said with a smirk. “How about I give all the juicy details of our time together to the one and only Zandi here.”  
  
What started out as amusing was no longer funny to Zandi, she put her caf mug down and leveled a stare at the woman. It was one thing to annoy someone in public, it was a completely different thing to try and humiliate them. Whatever the history between her and Theron, Zandi wasn’t going to let this woman a few too many shots to the brain, humiliate him and certainly not at her expense.  
  
“Just in case you missed something, honey,” Zandi said in a clear but sarcastic tone, “I never dated _Theorn_. I dated his twin.”  
  
“You have a twin?” Diana asked before waving the question away. “Whatever.” She reached over and picked up Theron’s glass and threw the contents of it at him. The Corellian ale landed in a splash on his face before dripping down onto his jacket and shirt.  
  
Which was really the wrong move as Zandi’s annoyance flashed into anger and she stood up, grabbed the woman by the lapels of her jacket and hauled her up. She slammed the woman onto the booth’s table causing a surprised yelp of pain.  
  
“Hey!” Diana shouted as she struggled against Zandi’s hold.  
  
“Shut up,” Zandi ordered, her voice filled with authority that made the woman close her mouth and blink at her.  
  
“It’s not very nice or lady like to be coming around this place filled with Republic officials and military personnel and thinking of humiliating them,” Zandi said. “If this is how you act in public, it’s really no wonder Theorn here wants nothing to do with you.”  
  
“He-”  
  
“I said shut up,” Zandi growled. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to help you to your feet and you’re going to buy Theorn a new drink and myself another mug of caf, then you’re going to go home and think about what you have done today. And I mean _really_ think about it. Cause if you don’t and I see you doing this again…I’ll have you charged with assault on a Republic Officer.”  
  
“What?” Diana asked.  
  
“Didn’t you know? Theorn Shanks is a military officer,” Zandi lied smoothly before pulling the woman up to her feet and ushering her towards the bar.   
  
She sat down to a few cheers sounding through out the Cantina but she ignored them as she looked at Theron who was dabbing at himself with several napkins.  
  
“Nice gal,” Zandi said casually.  
  
Theron glanced at her and shook his head, “Perhaps we should relocate somewhere a little…less public.”  
  
“Why? You expecting more ‘one night stands’ to show up and throw your own drink at you, _Theorn?_ ” She asked, putting amused emphasis on his so-called code-name.  
  
“I’m never going to live this down, am I?”   
  
“Probably not,” She laughed as Diana came back with two drinks before she silently stalked away.  
  
“I don’t know what you did,” Zandi said, picking up the mug of caf and wrinkling her nose at the straight black bitter smell. “But something tells me this isn’t the first time it’s happened.”  
  
Theron frowned at her and shook his head, “I…you know what, let’s just go.”  
  
“Where, exactly?”   
  
“VIP area, it’s much quieter up there,” Theron suggested as he stood up and grabbed his glass.  
  
“I don’t have access-”  
  
“I do, don’t worry about it,” Theron said with a sly smirk as he gestured with his hand, “Ladies first.”  
  
Zandi arched an eyebrow at him and sighed as she stood up and moved past him.  
  
This was already turning out to be an interesting evening.  
  


The VIP area was indeed quieter and not full of anyone who wanted to throw his own drink in his face. Still feeling a bit embarrassed by Diana’s sudden appearance when he was about to discuss something significantly more important and serious then his private life, he pulled out a data-pad and tried to get their meeting back on track and get his mind away from the curious way Zandi had reacted earlier.   
  
“I think I found a connection between you and _The Terentatek_ ,”He said in a quiet voice. The way her brow furrowed sent a lick of heat shooting through him. He had to push away the very inappropriate reaction to such a simple look. He pushed the datapad across the table towards her.  
  
She glanced at him and those vibrant green eyes looked at him curiously before she picked up the data-pad and started reading it. No doubt it was going to shock her, probably hit a bit too close to home. He couldn’t imagine it exactly. He didn’t know his biological parents but…he knew who his mother was…and he was pretty certain, his father wasn’t a criminal. For Zandi..it was a different story and this wasn’t just any criminal…this guy was practically a mastermind and he was the one who orchestrated the attack on her adoptive parents.  
  
He pushed aside the guilt he still felt over it, the sooner he could bring down the _Terentatek_ the sooner she could get her parents back.  
  
Glancing up, he immediately had to avert his eyes from her. She was focused on the data-pad, absently tapping her chin, her hair had fallen forward slightly but didn’t keep hidden the way she was absently nibbling her lower lip as she read from his view. A rush of memories came over him and he had to shift in his seat slightly. It hadn’t helped when he saw her haul Diana off her feet in a rush of anger earlier…It reminded him of seven years ago, the way she moved always got to him. But it was the same lip nibbling thing she was doing now that really got under his skin.  
  
“Are you okay?” She asked suddenly, her voice dragging his eyes back to her.   
  
“Yeah, fine,” he answered quickly. She arched an eyebrow and went back to reading the data-pad.  
  
He took a sip from his whiskey and then another as he tried to use a Jedi technique Master Zho had taught him to force his mind to focus on the matter at hand and not on Zandi…or memories of her…  
  
“Oh no,” she said in a shocked voice. His eyes snapped to her and she was staring at the data-pad before looking up at him. “I remember him…My…my father.” The horror in her eyes nearly did him in.  
She ran a shaky hand through her hair and looked around nervously before taking a deep breath and regaining her composure.  
  
“I was four when my biological mother and I were brought to Nar Shaddaa,” she said in a small voice. “It…I don’t know what happened but my mother said my father was dead and we were going to be rich.”  
  
Theron frowned as he listened.  
  
“Except we weren’t,” she said, her eyes went unfocused as if she was lost in her own memories. “Something had gone wrong and the Hutts weren’t happy. We were enslaved…”  
  
Theron’s blood went cold at her words. She’d been a slave of the Hutts at four years old? His chest tightened as he had to watch her relive those memories.  
  
“You don’t have to tell me-”  
  
“No, you need to understand just how dangerous this man is,” she said with a shaky voice and a shake of her head. With another breath, she continued. “I don’t know exactly what they made my mother do but…she changed over the next year…Not that I remember much that was good about her but…She blamed me for all of it. Someone attacked the Hutt that owned us…except it wasn’t just an attack. It was a gruesome massacre. I hid…in a storage crate or something when they entered the slave den…” She breathed and her hands shook as she grasped the caf mug as if it was an anchor that would keep her from falling into those awful memories. His heart constricted in his chest painfully at the look of utter fear in her eyes.

Without thinking, he reached across the table and took her hands into his. Her eyes dropped down to where their hands were joined but she didn’t pull away, she only held on to him.  
  
“I saw him then…He had cybernetics along his jaw that I didn’t remember him having before…his eyes were…I don’t know,” she said in shaky whisper. “He was hauling my mother around, demanding to know where I was. She was screaming at him, blaming him for everything…then he lost it.” Her hands tightened slightly. Theron could feel her trembling and he held on to her.  
  
“He didn’t just shoot her,” she said, looking up at him but not truly seeing him. “He tore her apart…she was dead long before he stopped…then he left. Just like that.”  
  
“Zandi…” Theron spoke her name in a soft voice and gently squeezed her hands.  
  
Her gaze focused back on him and she blinked at him before taking another deep breath, “He’s insane, Theron. He’ll kill anyone that gets in his way. That's what I remember of him…Insanity…”  
  
“I won’t let him hurt you or Ezekiel,” Theron said in a dead serious voice.  
  
She shook her head, “You don’t understand, he will _kill_ you for interfering. I can’t…” she shook her head and pulled her hands from his grasp then pushed away from the table. “I need to move my son…somewhere…”  
  
“Zandi, look at me,” Theron said, standing up and putting himself between her and the exit. “I promised I would protect you and your son. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”  
  
Her eyes shown with unshed tears as she looked up at him, “And whose going to protect you? If he kills you…I can’t let you die for me… _I can’t_.”  
  
“Zandromeda,” He said, “I’m not going to walk away while this guy is after you. Not happening and no amount of screaming or whatever is going to stop me.” He had the most absurd urge to kiss her right then, as if that would communicate to her that he meant every word he said.  
  
She looked at him for a moment and took a deep breath, regaining her composure as the Captain of Havoc Squad.   
  
“Then you promise me that you will stay alive,” she said in a serious tone. “ We work…together and you stay alive.”  
  
“On one condition,” he said matching her serious tone. “You give me the same promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that last line is pretty much the fluff of this entire piece. XD


	25. Excerpt 25: Straight Out Of Havoc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zandromeda takes a page out of Jace's book as she saves her squad during their operation on the Gauntlet. Her actions give way to serious consequences that are felt half way across the Galaxy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst incoming! and by the summary's use of "taking a page out of Jace's book". You need to watch the hope trailer of Swtor...then you'll understand what i mean. XD OR just read then watch XD

“Get back to the ship! Now!” Captain Zandromeda Kenobi ordered in a shout tossed over her shoulder as she met her assailant’s melee strike at her midsection with a well-placed block of her own vibro-blade. Electricity sparked in the air between her and a black-armor clad Imperial Shocktrooper.

The bridge, or what had been the bridge of the Imperial Superweapon code-named The Gauntlet, was nothing more than burnt ozone, blaster fire and crackling vibro-blades over the fallen imperial bodies that were scattered around them.

“Forex! Execute maneuver Tango-Five-Romeo-Twenty!” She ordered as she parried her attacker’s next several strikes before dancing back out of his reach only to dive back in with a quick feint before sending up a side-kick to his helmeted head. As the shock-trooper stumbled back from her, clearly only slightly dazed, she amped up the electrical charge of her vibro-blade with a single flick of her thumb. With a twist of her wrist, she sent the blade flying through the air. It landed on target, slicing through the soft under-armor gap on the Imperial’s neck. Electricity flared and arced around his neck causing him to briefly seize up.

He was dead before his body hit the ground.

Glancing to her right, she saw Forex’s shield shimmering in the air, absorbing blaster fire as the heavy-duty war-droid maneuvered his way close to lieutenant Jorgan who was taking cover behind a blasted-out console only a few feet from the bridge’s primary entrance. This was going to be a little tricky and they didn’t have a lot of time left.

She dived behind a set of now-shot up bridge chairs as blaster fire started zeroing in on her location.

“I can clear out the way for you, Captain,” Aric said over their comm-frequency. His voice held a thread of pain. She’d seen him take a few hits earlier when she’d finally made it to the bridge.

“Negative,” Zandi said as she peaked over her cover and sent a brief volley of fire towards a new wave of Imperial reinforcements entering from the secondary entrance of the bridge.

“Captain-”

“I want you off the bridge, Jorgan,” she said. “Forex and I will cover you, then he’ll cover me.”

“Yes, sir,” Aric answered through gritted teeth.

Zandi saw the primary bridge entrance was now momentarily free of enemy troops while at the same time more reinforcements were entering through the secondary entrance. It was now or never.  “Now’s the chance! Move your ass, Lieutenant!” She ordered.

“Forex, lay suppressing fire on the secondary entrance!” She said as she show off her own volley on the troops nearest Forex as her XO dashed from cover towards the primary entrance.

After Jorgan was out of the bridge, the volleys ended leaving the bridge full of Imperial bodies.

“Fall back to the ship, Forex, keep Jorgan covered,” Zandi said, standing up from her cover and moving quickly across the room. Forex was already out of the bridge and a third of the way down the hallway when a blaster shot rang out from the secondary entrance. Pain erupted like fire along the back of knee. The suddenness of the impact and the feeling of cauterizing flesh distracted her focus. Her balance tipped, sending her to her knees with an audible grunt.

“You’re not getting out of here alive, Captain,” a modulated voice hissed from behind her. She twisted her body to roll to the side and out of the entrance way. Then she heard the telltale sound of not just one lightsaber but three.

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath as she glanced up the corridor. Forex was too far, though he’d seemed to realize she wasn’t following. Jorgan was just ahead of the war-droid, turning back to look in her direction.

“Captain?” his voice came over the comm.

She remained silent. She could get up and try to run but she might cause more harm to her squad than good. She’d only slow them down with injury to her knee and the Sith would catch up in no time.

_ There’s a way… _ She thought, unhooking her last plasma grenade from her belt. She heard footsteps from within the bridge and she sent a few random shots into the bridge right before what felt like an armored clad hand wrapped around her throat and she was lifted up off the ground. It took her a precious second to realize that it was a Sith before her, using the Force to hold her up and slowly crush her windpipe.

Dark orange eyes glared at her.

She glared right back even as her vision started to darken around the edges.

_ Take this you Sith bastard _ , she thought briefly as she primed then armed the grenade in her hand. Two motions of her fingers and all she had to do was let go. The lack of oxygen and the pain racing through her as he increased pressure around her neck was about to cause a blackout.

With an effort, she let the grenade fall…

It exploded on impact between her and the Sith.

Two faces, both very dear to her, graced her mind before she succumbed to darkness.   
  


 

Half a galaxy away, in a remote location on a remote world, a white-haired Mirialan suddenly screamed in pain and anguish as she collapsed on the floor of the kitchen.

A light-green skinned Twi’lek rushed into the kitchen, alarmed and worried. Seeing his wife collapsed in a sobbing heap on the floor had him kneeling to the ground beside her, concern written over his face.

“Annyala?” He said, his voice thick with worry as he gently rolled her onto her back. The tears running down her face with her eyes squeezed shut in a grimace of agony had him checking her for wounds as his worry only grew.

“Annyala, talk to me,” Zenith said. There was nothing marking her, no sign of any wounds he could see. He lifted her up into his arms. “Annyala, what’s wrong?” he asked as he wiped away a trail of tears.

“Z-zaaan…” She tried to say before another sob broke through and cut off her words as she curled into him. Her silent sobs wracking her body.

He was chilled to the bone, as he realized what his wife had meant to say.

Zandi.

Their daughter.

His arms tightened around his wife and he carefully got to his feet. An ache began to grow in his chest as he carried his chest as he carried Annyala out of the kitchen and into the living area. Sitting down, he held on to her as she wept against his chest. He wanted to ask what she felt, what had happened. He wanted...no,  _ needed _ to know if the worst...had befallen their daughter. 

_ Please, no, _ he silently asked as he ran a slightly trembling hand over his wife’s shaking shoulder. The fear in his chest was cold and tight as it mingled heavily with the dread of the mere possibility that his daughter was… He couldn’t bring himself to even think of the word.

“Sh-She’s alive…” Annyala said, her voice wavered. “But she was in...so much pain.”

Zenith let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding. Keeping his hand running lightly along her arm and letting the simple movement, the simple feel of her skin ground him. It also kept him from focusing too much on how shaky he felt, like the ground was breaking and falling apart underneath his feet. 

“What-” He started but stopped himself when he heard the emotional cracking in his own voice. 

“I...I don’t know what happened,” Annyala said, her voice trembling as she shifted in his lap. Her head against his shoulder. “But I  _ know _ she’s alive.”

“Then...that’s good…” Zenith managed despite the worry and frustration that hung over him. He was silent a moment before speaking again, unable to keep the worry from threading through his voice. “You don’t think it was-”

“I don’t know, Zenith,” Annyala said quietly as she shifted her head to look up at him. Her right hand resting on his chest, a calming feeling. He met her eyes and saw the mirror image of his own emotions echoed in those violet depths. Uncertainty, worry, even a small flare of fear...but there was a light in his wife’s violet eyes that sparked a small bit of hope in him. 

“We can only wait and hope,” She said as she shifted again, bringing herself up into a sitting position. Her left arm slid around his neck, brushing his lekku, her right hand returned to his chest as she leaned her head onto his shoulder. His arms resumed their place around her as silence settled around them.

They sat there, holding  onto one another, each silently wondered of the future of their family.

Neither of them were willing to give voice to their fears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zandi is very much Havoc Squad...through and through.


	26. Excerpt 26: Critical Condition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theron visits a Kolto-Submerged Zandromeda. A brief but rather poignant visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again sorry for all the delays in updates for this story. Life gets in the way, and i just recently got a new job so, I need to readjust my daily routines and such! But here is the next bit for Zandi and Theron!

He knew he should be back on Nar Shaddaa tracking down two solid leads to get  _ The Terentatek  _ attention and get his plan in motion. He shouldn’t have put it on hold and come back to Coruscant after receiving that holo-Transmission from Zandi’s XO. The gruff cathar’s words kept rolling around in Theron’s mind even as he stepped into the state-of-the-art medical facilities in Coruscant’s Senate Tower. 

_ “She’s been injured,” Lieutenant Jorgan had said, his voice had matched his expression, grim and dark. “With her parents gone...You were the only other person listed on her emergency contacts list.” _

_ “Is she…” Theron had asked, his voice trailing off unable to finish the question when his throat had suddenly felt thick and swollen. _

_ “She’s in critical condition,” Jorgan had answered. “It’s...pretty bad. But she’s in the best possible hands on Coruscant. I’ll let you know if there’s any change.” _

The holo-call had been brief, to the point but it had tensed up every muscle in his body. Jorgan wouldn’t give him the details as to what or who had been responsible for injuring Zandi. All the Cathar was able to tell him it was ‘in the line of duty’. Theron had half a mind to slice into the Spec Forces database and find out exactly what had happened but he managed to refrain even as he journeyed through hyperspace to get here. 

He made a turn down a corridor and after flagging a nurse, asked for Zandi’s room number. The nurse hadn’t a clue, then alarms started blaring down the hallway. His head shot up as the sounds, he saw several medical personnel run past him and towards the last room on the left of the corridor. The nurse he’d been speaking to had joined the others.

Theron swallowed as a cold sensation started pooling in his chest and he followed them. 

Coming to a stop outside the last room, he could barely see past all the medical personnel but he caught a flash of wet crimson-red hair as they pulled a female body from a kolto tank. He didn’t have to see her face to know it was Zandi being laid on a medical bed. That flash of crimson hair told him everything. A nurse noticed him, her eyes went wide as she slapped the door’s keypad. The door slid shut. 

So he waited, trying to ignore the rising tumult of emotions surging through him.

An hour or so later, the door slid open and several people exited the room. The nurse from earlier saw him. After a moment of hesitation she stepped up to him.

“Sir?” the nurse asked, “You said you were looking for a Zandromeda Kenobi?”

“Yes…” he said, managing the single word a bit too gruffly. “I know where she is now. Thanks.”

“I can let you in the room but you should know,” The Nurse spoke, her voice softening. “She’s submerged in kolto. She won’t be aware of your visit.” 

_ Probably for the best, _ he thought as he nodded to the nurse. When he stepped into the room, his eyes locked onto the only kolto tank in use. 

He wasn’t prepared for the sudden ache in his chest from seeing her floating in the kolto tank. She was hooked up to several tubes and a breathing apparatus that was secured around her nose, mouth and jaw. It covered most of her face. The part of her face that was still visible was covered in contusions and bruises. The rest of her body was…much the same. She was dressed in a few scraps of fabric that was specifically designed for Kolto submerged patients and it left her arms, legs and abdomen bare. His eyes found the scar she’d received from that attack on Alderaan.

_ That was…almost a year ago, _ he thought. She’d gain several new scars and if the contusions presents were any indication, there were only going to be more.

Theron let out a shaky sigh and ran a gloved hand over his face before looking back up at her. The sight of her in such a vulnerable position, it tore at him in ways he hadn’t expected. She looked so damn small in that kolto tank. He understood that she’d been injured in the line of duty as a soldier of the Republic, he knew that whatever had happened she would be the first to say she’d signed up for it. There was probably little to no connection to The Terentatek and his goons that were after her but still, there was a part of him that was angry, angry that she was hurt and floating in a tank of kolto, angry that he hadn’t been there to protect her.

He frowned inwardly and shook his head. Uncertainty at why he was feeling this way rose. He didn’t want people getting hurt, of course. It was part of the reason he did what he did. The Republic was at war and Havoc squad was going to be on the front lines with Zandi leading the way. He knew that and even so…

“I promised I would protect you,” He said quietly, looking at her face. Part of him wished he could see those vibrant green eyes open just once. “I know I can’t protect you from everything, especially with our jobs but…” -he stepped up to the kolto tank as he pulled off his right glove before placing his now bare-hand on the cool surface of the glass. It was the closest to touching her he was going to get- “I can do what I can.”

“Don’t give up, Zandi,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “Don’t you dare give up, not like this.”

He took a deep breath as his hand fell away. Taking a step back and replacing his glove, he looked at her one last time before leaving the room and forcing his attention back on his mission and his promise.

He couldn’t protect her from her duty as a Republic Trooper, not the way he’d prefer to…but The Terentatek was a different story.

Theron was out of the Senate Tower before the nurse returned to Zandi’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bit short, but sometimes thats all the toons want. XD.

**Author's Note:**

> this entire fic was up on here a while ago, but its been edited and being brought back.


End file.
